Spectacular Bodies in Art, Science & Medicine - SAHT3215
Faculty: Faculty of Art & Design
School: School of Art & Design
Course Outline: Download course outline (PDF format)
Campus: Paddington
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
Enrolment Requirements:
Must have completed SAHT1101 or SAHT1212
CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
Starting with Hippocrates, Galen and the rupture spawned by Vesalius's public anatomy lesson of the spectacular body, this course will trace its impact upon art, science and medicine from the Reformation until Dr. Günter Von Hagen's contemporary performances of public autopsies and his controversial exhibitions, Body Worlds. It will investigate the pseudosciences of craniometry, physiognomy and phrenology, August Morel’s theory of degeneration, Charles Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’, Francis Galton’s theory of eugenics and Fascist theories of Race Hygiene in order to comprehend the docile body, degenerate body, hysterical body, Semitic body, racial body, eugenic body and Nazi Body. It will conclude by examining the Human Genome Project, Stem Cell Research, xenotransplantation and transspeciation in order to explore the contemporary genetic body and the possibilities of a post-human body.