Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: *Women and Gender Studies*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM: BEAUTY CULTURES, FEMINISM, & THE FEMALE BODY ***** This course (1) explores how women's bodies have been constructed by cultures committed to valuing and promoting beauty and (2) analyzes how feminism has variously engaged such an ongoing cultural commitment. We will analyze beauty cultures-the cosmetic industry, plastic surgery, and the recent return of the aesthetic as a salient interpretative mode in literary theory, for example-asking what impact these cultures have on feminist practice. Reading will include, among others: Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar, American Beauty, The Politices of Women;s Bodies:Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior, Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, On Beauty and Being Just; and Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery. ***** Also offered as ENGL 481.