HAVC 55 Unclothed: The Naked Body from Antiquity to the Present

Explores the various meanings of the naked body in visual material from the Paleolithic Age to the 21st century, focusing on Mediterranean traditions that have influenced the so-called Western world: Greco-Roman culture, Christianity, and the Italian Renaissance. Course also examines the naked body in the context of European Orientalism and colonialism in the 19th century and concludes with the work of American feminist artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Throughout the quarter, special emphasis is placed on the construction of identities of gender and sexuality, and in the last part of the course students consider modern constructs of race.