Course
Course 15 credits • KOVN14
The course covers issues related to the human body and its status in modern and contemporary society, with particular regard to the display, representation, exposure, and invisibilisation of the body in different societal, cultural and artistic contexts. The modern and contemporary problematics of the body, and of how it is pictured and imagined, are studied with consideration of their continuities and discontinuities with the visual cultures of pre-modern periods.
The course covers issues related to the human body and its status in modern and contemporary society, with particular regard to the display, representation, exposure, and invisibilisation of the body in different societal, cultural and artistic contexts. The modern and contemporary problematics of the body, and of how it is pictured and imagined, are studied with consideration of their continuities and discontinuities with the visual cultures of pre-modern periods.
The course examines the visual cultures of the body from three perspectives:
- The connections between visualisation and knowledge, control and power, including the economisation, politicisation and juridification of the body in the context of bioscience, bioeconomy, and biopolitics.
- The relation between embodiment, individuality and subjectivity, including issues of identity, self-(mis)recognition and performativity in relation to ethnicity and race, gender, age, disability, etc.
- Theoretical and philosophical understandings of human corporeality and its existential conditions and implications, including the complex relations between visuality and materiality.
Programme affiliation: Master's Programme in Visual Culture
Study period:
autumn semester 2025
Type of studies:
full time,
day
Study period:
2025-09-01 – 2025-11-02
Language of instruction:
English
Eligibility:
90 credits from first cycle including Bachelor's essay in one of the subjects history of art and visual studies, filmvetenskap, musicology, design studies, architecture, visual view of mankind or the equivalent knowledge
Application code:
LU-E1053
Application code:
LU-31550
Introductory meeting: Monday, 1 September at 10.15 – 12.00 in LUX:C214
Teachers:
Peter Bengtsen,
Erika Larsson,
Max Liljefors,
Maria Oen,
Joacim Sprung