Rethinking the Body

Subject UNIB20010 (2011)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2011.

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 2 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

Semester 1, Southbank - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable

Semester 2, Southbank - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable


Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: 36 hours per semester
Total Time Commitment: 120 hours per semester
Prerequisites: None
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements: For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Contact

Faculty of the VCA and Music Student Centre
Email: vcam-info@unimelb.edu.au
Tel: +61 3 9685 9419
Fax: +61 3 9685 9358
Web: www.vcam.unimelb.edu.au
Subject Overview:

This subject offers a further development of the Poetics of the Body subject offered in first year. Students broaden their theoretical and practical knowledge of the human body as constructed through discourses across the creative arts, humanities and sciences.

Over the semester students attend a programme of 12 events involving lectures, performances, film screenings, and interviews, all directly related to the Seminar topics. The events programme provides an historical overview of how the body has been understood in different philosophical, medical, scientific, visual and performing arts, and literary traditions from the ancient Greeks through to contemporary philosophy with its focus on Feminist, Phenomenological, Psychoanalytic and Ecological theories. They will be presented by practitioners, academics and researchers form the Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences.

Students choose 2 of the following 6 week interdisciplinary Seminars:

  • Mysticism and other forms of psychic and spiritual phenomenon
  • Bodies of War: violence, conflict and the avant garde in Europe and Japan
  • Childhood: explorations in imagination and perception
  • Failings: representations of psychical and physic illness through history and their relationship to identity
  • Erotica: customs, costumes, body modifications and the law.

Additional seminars may be offered.

Seminars include both theoretical and practical components, providing opportunities for experimentation with applications of knowledge and process.
Objectives:

The Poetics of the Body 2 aims to

  • provide opportunities for individual and collaborative work on the body and related themes;
  • introduce students to a range of reserach methodologies within an interdisciplinary context;
  • develop students haptic, kinaesthetic and proprioceptive perception;
  • focus attention on the expressivity of the human body as a shared medium of communcation.
Assessment: Assessment comprising 1 written assigment (800-1,000 words) and 1 performative or practice based group project per Seminar. Assignments (25%+25%); Project (25%+25%). All assignments are due at the end of each 6 week Seminar. There is an 80% attendance hurdle.
Prescribed Texts: Poetics of the Body 2 Seminar Reader.
Recommended Texts: None
Breadth Options:

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:

At the completion of the Poetics of the Body 2 subject students should be able to

  • Exhibit a sound working knowledge of the role of the human body across its various discipline specific domains;
  • Demonstrate excellent interpretive abilities across a range of academic disciplines;
  • Confidently communicate, both orally and in writing, opinions, ideas and observations with regard to theory and practice of the body, in gruop and individual sitations;
  • Participate effectively as a team member in interdisciplinary projects with a shared focus;
  • Embody an informed respect for the principles, protocols, discipline and ethics of interdisciponary scholarship and practice;
  • Demonstrate capacities for scholarly analysis and artistic imagination, creativity, transormation and interpretation;
  • Contribute to a range of disciplines as collaborators and leaders;
  • Contribute in an informed and consdiered manner to current artistic, scientific and ethical debates on the human body.
Related Breadth Track(s): Poetics of the Body

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