In this course, we examine the varied ways in which writers represent the physical body on the page as object, possession, extension of self, and microcosm of the collective. We examine how writers marshal gender, race, sexuality and sensory expression to articulate broader social, political or cultural concerns, and how the individual body might be mobilized as a metaphor for, or as resistance against, larger institutional, structural or governmental bodies. In addition, we will assess how writers use external bodily conditions or constraints to survey, contest or translate internal emotional or psychological states, and how literature might illuminate strategies through which historically marginalized or regulated bodies attempt to assert, reclaim or reimagine their own agency.
3 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
In this course, we examine the varied ways in which writers represent the physical body on the page as object, possession, extension of self, and microcosm of the collective. We examine how writers marshal gender, race, sexuality and sensory expression to articulate broader social, political or cultural concerns, and how the individual body might be mobilized as a metaphor for, or as resistance against, larger institutional, structural or governmental bodies. In addition, we will assess how writers use external bodily conditions or constraints to survey, contest or translate internal emotional or psychological states, and how literature might illuminate strategies through which historically marginalized or regulated bodies attempt to assert, reclaim or reimagine their own agency.
Offered in Winter 2027 at Stanford University.