Undergraduate Course: Bodies of Change: Gender, Sexuality and Medicine in France, 1852-1914 (HIAR10211)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course considers the representation of different bodies in French art from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the topics explored in this course include the nude, queer bodies, skin colour and musculature, bodies in surgery and intoxicated bodies. Underpinned by the key themes of gender, sexuality and medicine, the course is about how artists portrayed these bodies in response to social and political changes, including feminism and colonialism. |
| Course description |
Bodies of Change covers the period in France from the Second French Empire to the start of the First World War. Each week focuses on a different type of body and considers how those bodies corresponded to changes in French society. Weekly seminars investigate topics such as idealised bodies, bodies in surgery, queer bodies, intoxicated bodies, sexual bodies and diseased/dying bodies. Recurring themes throughout this course are gender, ethnicity and race, sexuality, medicine and colonialism. The course covers artworks created in various styles ¿ Realism, Naturalism, Impressionism and Symbolism, for example ¿ and a range of mediums, including painting, sculpture and caricature. Some of the artists covered on this course include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Edouard Manet and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Seminars will often look to works in local collections, and a group visit outside the allocated seminar slot will be arranged.
This 20-credit course takes place over 10 teaching weeks with weekly 2-hour seminars. Seminars comprise various teaching activities, including short lectures, class discussions and group tasks. Seminar discussions typically include the close analysis of artworks and essential readings. Essential readings range from art-historical scholarship, primary source texts and audio-visual material. Students are expected to complete the essential reading each week in advance of the seminar. On specified weeks, students may also need to prepare for group tasks. Group tasks can take the format of a short presentation or discussion preparation. The course organiser will explain details of the summative assessments at the beginning of the course.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and we will only consider University/College level courses. **Please note that 3rd year History of Art courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 16 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
External Visit Hours 2,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components.
2,000-word written portfolio (40%), Weeks 6-8. The portfolio comprises of 4 mini essays of 500 words each. Mini essays correspond to individual seminar weeks and may include visual analysis, textual analysis, exhibition reviews and self-reflection. Students choose 4 tasks to complete out of a selection of 6-8 tasks.
2,000-word essay (60%); Exam Diet.
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| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Students will receive ongoing formative feedback during seminars from peers and the course organiser in the form of class discussions and the opportunity to ask questions. This ongoing formative feedback will contribute directly to the course learning outcomes and both summative assessments equally. Additionally, each student is entitled to a one-to-one meeting to obtain verbal feedback from the course organiser on a 200-word essay plan for the 2,000-word essay in Weeks 8-12. This formative feedback is given during one-to-one sessions outside scheduled seminars.
Summative feedback:
Students will receive separate written feedback for both summative assessments from the course organiser. Summative feedback will be provided according to university regulations. The analytical and critical thinking skills needed for the first summative assessment correspond to the skills needed in the second summative assessment. As such, summative feedback for the first assessment will contribute directly to the second assessment, allowing for reflection and improvement before the second summative submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply appropriate methodologies, such as feminism and postcolonialism, to visual and textual analysis.
- Think critically about how and why artworks were created, and how they functioned in their broader social and artistic contexts, through seminar discussions and summative assessments.
- Utilise primary and secondary scholarship from a variety of disciplines, including art history, medical history and social history.
- Discuss verbally and in writing the ways in which the representation of different bodies corresponded to social and political changes in France from 1852 to 1914.
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Reading List
Albert, Nicole G. Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature in Fin-De-Siècle France. Translated by Nancy Erber and William Peniston. New York, NY: Harrington Park Press, 2016.
Childs, Adrienne, and Susan Libby (eds.). Blacks and Blackness in European Art of the Long Nineteenth Century. Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014.
Dawkins, Heather. The Nude in French Art and Culture, 1870-1910. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Halliwell, Hannah. Art, Medicine, and Femininity: Visualising the Morphine Addict in Paris, 1870-1914. Montreal; Kingston; London; Chicago, IL: McGill-Queen¿s University Press, 2024.
Hunter, Mary. The Face of Medicine: Visualising Medical Masculinities in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015.
Vergeest, Aukje, and Nienke Bakker (eds.). Easy Virtue: Prostitution in French Art, 1850-1910. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 2016)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and Enquiry:
Analytical and critical thinking skills are strengthened through the analysis of cross-disciplinary primary and secondary sources.
The seminars and summative assessments encourage effective knowledge integration and application to interpret a variety of artworks and themes.
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy:
Both summative assessments encourage students to be self-aware of their own learning and development; students¿ potential is maximised by choosing topics and tasks that best suit their learning styles and interests.
Independent learning and group work encourage, firstly, intellectual autonomy and, secondly, an openness and curiosity to others¿ opinions.
Communication:
The two assessment types facilitate the communication of complex ideas in diverse ways: the ability to write concisely, and the ability to develop an argument through a piece of substantial, structured writing.
Seminar discussions develop and enhance verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
Course themes explore identities and discrimination through history, hence strengthening cross-cultural communication and encouraging sensitivity to diversity and inclusion.
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| Keywords | gender,sexuality,medicine,France,colonialism,art,body |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hannah Halliwell
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Susanne Neil
Tel:
Email: |
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