Syllabus: Embodiment Theory

Seminar: THEORIES OF EMBODIMENT (Undergraduate)

Prof. Deidre Sklar

This course was taught at Oberlin College in the Spring of 2006 and was designed for weekly 3-hour seminars. This is not a graduate level course because it doesn't have an extensive reading list; however, the readings are at an advanced level (approx 40 pages per week).  It's been slightly modified for on-line use with elaborations added for instructors.

Description

          The concept of "embodiment" has recently received attention in multiple fields, including dance and performance studies, cultural anthropology and sociology, feminist and psychoanalytical theory, and philosophy and cognitive science.  This readings seminar confronts the problem of "the body" through selected readings across disciplines, comparing approaches and analyzing their implications for research, performance and social action. 

          We know that our experiences as embodied beings, our beliefs about the body, and our perceptions about others' bodies are socially constructed and speak of membership in a culture.  Given the multiplicity of discourses about embodiment, how are we to sort through what it is to be embodied?  What kinds of questions are we even to pose about embodiment?

          We will chew on some of the following  (You are encouraged to add your own questions!): How is "the body" situated in different disciplinary paradigms? What is the relationship between concepts of embodiment and our own embodied practices and experiences?  What is it to know something somatically, through kinesthesia, pain and other bodily sensations?  How does this kind of knowledge relate to knowledge in other sensory modes?  How are race, ethnicity, class, and gender registered in bodily practice?  How are our own bodily practices and rhetoric implicated in larger local and global, historical, social, and political systems?  What, indeed, is "the body," relative to the person, the world and language?

Goals

• To appreciate the breadth of approaches to the problem of embodiment by sampling and engaging with a cross-disciplinary selection of readings on embodiment.
• To understand the way each reading conceptualizes the body and to participate in dialogue with that conceptualization.
• To discern how each conceptualization both interprets and influences actual embodied practices and attitudes toward the body in real situations.
• To evaluate the insights, limitations and implications of each approach: How does it increase our knowledge of what it is to be human? What kind of human sociality does it engender? What are its implications concerning agency, awareness and social action?
• To apply the conceptualizations of embodiment we sample to case studies, in discussion and in writing: How might we "read" any given bodily event from the perspective of each article? Do different embodied practices "call for" different conceptualizations of embodiment?

 Requirements

Attendance 

          Especially in a small seminar, we are dependent on each other's presence to keep up good discussion.  We also become accustomed to seeing and hearing from each other.  If you have to miss a class, we will all want to know what happened to you! (you can choose to keep this private).  If you miss more than one seminar, however, your grade will be lowered.

 Participation

          Participation involves engaged, respectful listening as well as discussion. We are after exchange rather than agreement.  Therefore, encourage your peers to contribute their perspectives, and contribute your own questions, expressions of enthusiasm, support, doubts objections, stories.  Try to be aware of the direction you are taking the conversation: we are improvising a verbal choreography together.

(This course will also include electronic discussion -- see below). 

Readings:

          All our readings (about 50 pages each week) will be posted on Blackboard. It is best to print up the articles and make yourself a course reader in which you can underline, write comments and questions in the margins, and have the articles to refer to for writing assignments.  For those readings that are in MS WORD (not PDF files), you can download onto your desktop and write notes and underlinings directly into the articles, then print them out. 

• Complete all the readings by the due date listed.
• Read the material thoughtfully and in an engaged manner (including endnotes and footnotes).
• Seek out definitions for words and terminology you don’t know.

If you have previously read a text, re-read it.  Some of the texts are difficult. I expect you will need more than one read-through for these (even if you still come up not understanding!).

Reading Journal

For each week's reading assignment:

• Take rough notes on each article (either on the article pages themselves or separately), noting passages that stand out as particularly meaningful to you, that you don't understand, that stimulate your thoughts, or that you want to challenge. Especially note points that you think relate to previous readings. These rough notes can be handwritten.

Feel free to also use your journal as a scrapbook, gathering  magazine photos, articles, etc. on bodies and embodiment!  

• Write an informal but thoughtful commentary (at least 2 pages or 500 words). This reading-intensive seminar takes a nonlinear, comparative, dialogic approach. Thus, you are expected to use the commentary aspect of the journal as an opportunity to practice looking deeply into and engaging with the authors' work.

          You may choose to write about one article or more than one. You may choose an idea that affected you strongly (made you think, inspired you, infuriated you...), or you may choose to map out the method an author used to develop an argument.  You may choose to juxtapose the argument of two articles, or two ideas from two different articles, exploring a relationship, a contradiction, or a development you see between them.  In other words, this is a rather freeform assignment that gives you the opportunity to explore.

Hint: If you are having trouble thinking of something to write about, look over the goals of the course (see above) as guidelines for the kinds of questions you might ask of an article.  Another way to get going is to simply ask: What stood out for me in this week's reading?

These thought pieces must be typed and dated (Week # and exact date). 

• Blackboard Discussion: Each week, one student will be assigned to post her or his essay to our Discussion page in Blackboard (Due on Blackboard Saturday at midnight). This will serve as the opening "thread" of a group discussion. Everyone is required to respond. Your responses should be thoughtful and increase the possibilities for more ideas and discussion.  In other words, avoid criticizing each other's ideas or writing style.  Rather, take each posting as a valid starting point for amplification, example, comparison, development, or even objection (if phrased with respect for the author's thought!) 

          The Blackboard discussion will provide us with food for thought in class.  It does not substitute for your own individual thought piece on the reading!  (basing your commentary on the Blackboard discussion would be a form of plagiarism...)

          Bring rough notes and thought pieces to class each week.  Keep them either in a soft-covered looseleaf or in a folder with pockets.  I will collect the typed pieces weekly and the rough notes periodically and at random throughout the semester.  Late submissions will be penalized.

Save all your notes!  They will help you with your final essay. 

Writing Requirements 

• Your weekly Reading Response constitutes one aspect of the writing requirement.
• Short writing assignments will be given throughout the semester.
• Essay:

          The major assignment for this course is a final 15 page essay relating one or more of the issues or theoretical frameworks covered during the semester to a case study (a bodily practice).

          You will have the opportunity to submit 1) ideas for your paper; 2) a proposal; 3) an outline or mapping of the essay; and 4) a rough draft.  Details on content, due dates, format, and criteria for evaluation will be provided.

Oral Presentation

          We will hold a mini-conference either during our last class meeting or during Finals week (in which case it will be your "Final Project.").  I am open to negotiating the date together.

          The presentation will consist of conference-style panels in which each participant presents a shortened version of his or her final essay to which another student responds.  The length of the presentations will be determined, depending on the number of students in the course.

          Further details will be announced.

Honor Code

http://www.oberlin.edu/students/student_pages/honor_code.html

          I like to think of citations as "sacred sites."  They recognize our sacred connections and honor those who have helped us along our way.  They also point readers to where they, too, might go for inspiration.

          In more stringent words: Plagiarism is a serious offense.  All language and ideas from someone else's work, whether quoted directly or used indirectly, must be cited.  All help from others, whether students, faculty, family, or friends, must also be acknowledged.  All papers or exams you submit should have the Honor Code typed and signed.  If you aren't sure what constitutes plagiarism, please feel free to consult with me.

Due Dates

          All work must be handed in on time. Please prepare in advance to meet deadlines, including giving yourself time for re-writing, editing, and printing up.  Late work will be penalized.  There will be no incompletes given for this course.

Grading

Letter grades will be given for each writing assignment (weekly reports, short writing assignments, preliminary steps toward final essay, final essay, and oral presentation).  Your participation in class and on-line discussions will also receive a letter grade.

Final grades will take into account, on an equal basis:

1. Attendance and participation (in class and on-line)
2. Readings Journal (rough notes + creative material)
3. Weekly writing on the readings
4. Short writing assignments, preliminaries toward final essay and oral presentation
5. Final essay