This course explores body, gender, and sexuality in pre-modern Western and Chinese cultural discourses. We will historicize gender, sexuality, and the body in the following sources: 1) Sex change and same-sex desire from Greco-Roman mythology and Galenic medical traditions; 2) Ambiguous Bodies in the Medieval and Early Modern Religious Iconography: Female saints and feminine Jesus; 3) yin/yang 陰陽 medical cosmology and representation of the feminine (female ghosts and fox women) in Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhi yi 聊齋誌異). We ask how these imaginative ideas of human anatomy and cultural expression of gender and sexuality challenge our understandings of what it means to be men and women today. Critical examination of these representations suggests that sex, gender, and sexuality were largely social and cultural constructions before modern biomedical knowledge about human bodies took hold.

Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Demonstrate a fair understanding of cultural discourses on gender and sexuality.
2. Exhibit a comprehension of the interdisciplinary approaches for analyzing gender, sex, and sexuality.
3. Demonstrate adequate written and oral communication skills within various formal and informal circumstances.

This course explores body, gender, and sexuality in pre-modern Western and Chinese cultural discussions. We will historicize gender, sexuality, and the body in the following sources: 1) Sex change and same-sex desire from Greco-Roman mythology and Galenic medical traditions; 2) Ambiguous Bodies in the Medieval and Early Modern Religious Iconography: Female saints and feminine Jesus; 3) yin/yang Yinyang medical cosmology and representation of the feminine (female ghosts and fox women) in Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhi yi 日本本本). We ask how these imagined ideas of human anatomy and cultural expression of gender and sexuality challenge our understandings of what it means to be men and women today. Critical examination of these representations suggests that sex, gender, and sexuality were largely social and cultural constructions before modern biomedical knowledge about human bodies took hold.

Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Demonstrate a fair understanding of cultural discussions on gender and sexuality.
2. Exhibit a comprehension of the interdisciplinary approaches for analyzing gender, sex, and sexuality.
3. Demonstrate adequate written and oral communication skills within various formal and informal circumstances.

Gavin Francis. “Gender: The Two Lives of Tiresias”. In Shapeshifters: a doctor’s notes on medicine and human change. Wellcome: 2019, pp. 143-56.

Veronique Mottier. “Before Sexuality”. In Sexuality: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press: 2008, pp. 3-24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDKk0rshtM

Gan Bao 干寶. In Search of the Supernatural搜神記: The Written Record. Translated by Kenneth DeWoskin, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. (selected passages)

Pu Songling蒲松齡. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio 聊齋誌異. Translated by John Minford. Penguin Books, 2006. (“The Merchant’s Son” 賈兒, pp. 133-40; “Lotus Fragrance” 蓮香, pp. 211-28)

Susan Mann. “The Body in Medicine, Art, and Sport,” in Gender and Sexuality in Modern China. Cambridge University Press: 2011, pp. 83-94.


Viagra Craze: Does Medicine Makes the Man?
Susan Bordo. “Pills and Power Tools”. In Gender Relations in Global Perspective: Essential Readings. Edited by Nancy Cook.

Véronique Mottier. Sexuality: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). (Chapter 1 Before Sexuality, pp. 3-24; Chapter 2 The Invention of Sexuality, 25-48).

Gavin Francis. “Gender: The Two Lives of Tiresias”. In Shapeshifters: a doctor’s notes on medicine and human change. Wellcome: 2019, pp. 143-56.

Veronique Mottier. “Before Sexuality”. In Sexuality: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press: 2008, pp. 3-24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDKk0rshtM

Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record. Translated by Kenneth DeWoskin, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. (selected passages)

Pu Songling. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Translated by John Minford. Penguin Books, 2006. (“The Merchant’s Son” Jay, pp. 133-40; “Lotus Fragrance” Velvet, pp. 211-28)

Susan Mann. “The Body in Medicine, Art, and Sport,” in Gender and Sexuality in Modern China. Cambridge University Press: 2011, pp. 83-94.


Viagra Craze: Does Medicine Makes the Man?
Susan Bordo. “Pills and Power Tools”. In Gender Relations in Global Perspective: Essential Readings. Edited by Nancy Cook.

Véronique Mottier. Sexuality: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). (Chapter 1 Before Sexuality, pp. 3-24; Chapter 2 The Invention of Sexuality, 25-48).