The Poetics of the Body is a University-wide Breadth Subject offered through the Centre for Ideas to University of Melbourne undergraduates. In 2008 it will be offered as a 1st Year University-wide Breadth Subject.
This subject will explore the ways in which historical and contemporary discourses are constructed around the human body in the visual and performing arts, politics, law, philosophy, medicine and science. Within university departments, study of the human body is the object of discrete and sometimes competing areas of knowledge. The Poetics of the Body challenges this compartmentalization. It offers a wide, multidisciplinary perspective on the body.
During the Renaissance the practice of drawing upon various traditions – humanist and scholastic, literary and scientific, theoretical and practical – led to rich theoretical interpretations and representations of the human body. Much of this knowledge was framed by deep spiritual, aesthetic and ethical concerns. Since the 17th century, investigation of the human body has splintered into discipline-specific fields of study. By the beginning of the 21st century the fragmentation of knowledge about the body has dominated. The Poetics of the Body offers a unique and inclusive approach. The assumption is that the body can direct research. It is not only an object of investigation, but also the vehicle through which knowledge of the world is gathered.
Underpinning the Poetics of the Body is a recognition of the value of interdiscipinarity and the role it plays in invigorating and enriching critical vocabularies and representations. There is also recognition of the value of theory derived in practice. Through experiential studio/ laboratory, and lecture/ tutorial based learning, students will explore the ways in which historical and contemporary discourses are constructed around the human body
First, Second, and Third Year
Visual and Performing Arts, Anthropology, Architecture, Indigenous Studies, Islamic studies, English, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, Behavioural Science, Anthropology.
No prerequisites for the First Year.
The Poetics of the Body aims to:
The Poetics of the Body starts from the premise that the body is not only the object of investigation but the medium through which this investigation takes place. It explores ways of knowing through the complex dialectic that develops between the human body and its physical and intellectual environment. Experiential and experimental studio /laboratory work will be integrated with more discursive, theory based learning to enhance student’s conceptual, analytical and critical skills.
By integrating traditionally discrete, discipline-specific bodies of knowledge, including pedagogical practices, methodologies and values, into a broader educational context, the Poetics of the Body will generate new modes of understanding and representations of the human body.
Dr Elizabeth Presa
The Centre for Ideas
Faculty of The Victorian College of the Arts
The University of Melbourne
234 St Kilda Road
Southbank, Vic 3006
Phone: + 61 3 9685 9343
Fax: + 61 3 9682 1841
Email: epresa@unimelb.edu.au
Poetics of the Body
First Year
Subject Code 800166
LECTURE PROGRAMME SEMESTER 2, 2009
VENUE: Federation Hall, 234 St Kilda Road VCA ( cnr St Kilda Road and Grant Street)
TIME: MONDAYS 12.30-2.00PM
July 27 – Introduction – David Shea – Why we bother to breathe in and breathe out
August 3 – David Castle – Chair of Psychiatry, St. Vincents – Body Image Disorders
August 10 – Elizabeth Presa – Sculptor and Head of the Center for Ideas – Touch, Rilke and Rodin
August 17 – Jusitin Clemens – Professor of culture and Communications - All things Sigmund Freud
August 24 – Master Liu – Martial artist and teacher – Martial Arts and the body – Chan Buddhism and Meditation
August 31 – Eugen Koh – Psychiatrist and director of the Cunningham Dax collection – Introduction to the collection
September 7 – Vist to the Cunningham Collection
September 14 – Jeff Craig – Developmental Epigeneticist at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute – An overview of the field of Epigenetics –Environmental influences on our genes
Break: September 21 and 28
October 5 – Stelarc – Performance artist and technological body artist
October 12 –Martin Flanagan – Novelist and AFL Football columnist – Australian sport, Indigenous culture and the divide between the arts and sport
October 19 – POB Film Fest – Curated by David Shea and Victoria Duckett
October 26 – Student Presentations