LET-ACWB110-ACS
Gender and the Arts
Course infoSchedule
Course moduleLET-ACWB110-ACS
Credits (ECTS)5
Category-
Language of instructionEnglish
Offered byRadboud University; Faculty of Arts; Cultural Studies;
Lecturer(s)
PreviousNext 1
Lecturer
dr. A.P.H. Geurts
Other course modules lecturer
Examiner
dr. A.P.H. Geurts
Other course modules lecturer
Coordinator
dr. A.P.H. Geurts
Other course modules lecturer
Contactperson for the course
dr. A.P.H. Geurts
Other course modules lecturer
Lecturer
dr. S. Kroonenberg
Other course modules lecturer
Academic year2022
Period
PER 4  (10/04/2023 to 03/09/2023)
Starting block
PER 4
Course mode
full-time
Remarks-
Registration using OSIRISYes
Course open to students from other facultiesYes
Pre-registrationNo
Waiting listNo
Placement procedure-
Aims

After successful completion of this course you will be able to:

  1. Explain the potential meanings of the concept of gender using the different theoretical approaches provided;
  2. Analyse and critically assess how the gendering of makers and audiences impacts on the art and media world at all stages of the creative/receptive process;
  3. Analyse from an intersectional perspective and critically assess how artistic, media and everyday cultural expressions represent men, women and others;
  4. Distinguish and recognise different gender styles (inc. different forms of femininity and masculinity) in everyday life and in artistic and media expressions, and cultivate an understanding for both the anxieties and the creativity that accompany these styles;
  5. Exchange ideas on and experiences of gender in the media, art and culture in an open, (self-)critical, and constructive manner;
  6. Conduct and report on a small independent academic research project.
Content

This course offers an introduction to cultural gender studies, focusing specifically on the role of gender in media and the arts, but also reflecting on gender in everyday life and culture(s) more broadly. Gender studies investigates the socio-cultural meanings attributed to perceived sexual differences, and explores the complex interaction between gender and other identity markers, such as race, class, physical and mental make-up ('ability'), and sexuality. Masculinity and femininity are not fixed but rather are constantly (re)produced; the arts and other media expressions play an important role in this process.

In particular, we will look at

  1. What is gender?
  2. How does the gendering of artists and other actors in the art and media world shape their knowledge, their agency, and their access to institutions, canons, and audiences? And v.v., the access audiences have to artists? What is the role of bodies? And can occupying a subaltern/oppressed position perhaps also carry intellectual or artistic advantages?
  3. How do the arts and the media represent men, women, and others? How do they invite audiences to imagine or picture people who are different from them? And what impact do other factors affecting someone's social position - e.g. physical make-up, racialisation, sexual behaviour, gender presentation, religion, or wealth - have on these representations?
  4. What do femininity and masculinity mean, for different people? How are anxieties and curiosities around these gender styles played out in the arts and media? And how are they taken up by audiences?

Addressing these and other questions, this course engages with texts, dramatic, musical and visual arts, temporary and permanent body modification, and cultural expressions in various other media, both high-brow and low-brow, down to everyday language use. We focus on western Europe and North America but include (with a little help from yourselves) also an ever-growing number of theories and case-studies from other regions, in order to reflect on some of the key cultural theories and debates surrounding the relationship between gender and the arts.

Level

Presumed foreknowledge

Knowledge from the ACS/ACW course Cultural Theory or from the Faculty-wide Gender Minor Theme Course will be assumed in this course. If you have not completed either course before beginning Gender and the Arts, it is recommended that you read a short introduction to critical theory; for instance one of the following very interesting, short and affordable books:

  • Catherine Belsey. Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2002. ISBN: 9780192801807.
  • OR Jonathan Culler. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Second Edition). Oxford UP, 2011. ISBN: 9780199691340.
  • OR Robert J.C. Young. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (Second Edition). Oxford UP, 2020. ISBN: 9780198856832.
  • OR Stuart Sim and Boris Van Loon. Introducing Critical Theory. Icon Books, 2004.
Test information

Specifics
Although this course is categorised as 'lecture'/'hoorcollege', the work in our classroom will consist largely in larger- and smaller-group discussions.
 
Required materials
Book
Costs: ca. 35 euros (at the time of editing this study guide). You are also welcome to use the Dutch version, Handboek genderstudies in media, kunst en cultuur (Coutinho, 2d edition).
Title:Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture
Author:Rosemarie Buikema, Liedeke Plate, Kathrin Thiele (eds.)
Publisher:New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2018
Edition:2
Articles
See the course manual: in addition to the book, the teacher will make available further primary and secondary sources. Aside from these, you may be asked to buy one film, literary text or e.g. a Netflix subscription of one month.
Costs:10.00

Instructional modes
seminar
Attendance MandatoryYes

Tests
Portfolio
Test weight50
Test typeProject
OpportunitiesBlock PER 4, Block PER 4

Minimum grade
5,5

Essay
Test weight50
Test typeProject
OpportunitiesBlock PER 4, Block PER 4

Minimum grade
5,5