Module HIST20U1: Sex, Gender, and the Body in South Asian History

Department: History

HIST20U1: Sex, Gender, and the Body in South Asian History

Prerequisites

• A pass mark in at least ONE level 1 module in History

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To explore the various ways in which the categories of sexuality, gender, and the body have been configured across premodern and modern South Asia.
• To highlight the importance of gender, sexuality, and the body as categories of historical analysis for South Asia.
• To introduce students to a range of sources including texts, images, and films to explore transformations in South Asian history.
• To contribute towards the achievement of the Department’s generic aims for study at Level 2

Content

• This module explores how categories of gender, sexuality, and the body have been configured in premodern and modern South Asian history. We will draw upon primary sources including texts, images, as well as films and documentaries. We will also read scholarly literature that explore South Asian history through the analytics of sexuality, gender, and body in various ways. We will begin by exploring gender in early South Asian history through poetry in translation as well as selections from epic texts. We will read sections from texts including the Kāmasūtra that may be widely known but are rarely analyzed within their original historical and courtly contexts in medieval South Asia. Through poetic and literary texts also from medieval South Asia, we will explore notions of pleasure, love, and intimacy. We then move on to analyse the intersections between imperialism, sexuality, gendered bodies and colonial rule and also critically examine colonial debates and legal regimes around “widow burning” or sati in nineteenth century colonial South Asia. Finally, we will examine connections between masculinity and post-colonial nationalisms and think critically about how exclusionary nationalisms operate through the policing of bodies, agency, and love in contemporary South Asia. Throughout the module, we will pay attention to how social, political, and ethical formations have interacted with gendered bodies and selves throughout South Asian history.

Learning Outcomes

• To embrace a rigorous study of primary texts, films, and images as primary sources in South Asian historical scholarship.
• To learn to critically analyze arguments in scholarly articles and monographs.
• To be able to express analytical arguments orally and in writing using evidence from primary sources and secondary literature through essays, discussions in seminars, and presentations.
• To embrace a rigorous study of primary texts, films, and images as primary sources in South Asian historical scholarship.
• To learn to critically analyze arguments in scholarly articles and monographs.
• To be able to express analytical arguments orally and in writing using evidence from primary sources and secondary literature through essays, discussions in seminars, and presentations.

• Familiarity with methods to critically analyse a range of sources for South Asian history.
• An ability to construct analytical and reasoned arguments about transformations in South Asia, from the ancient to the medieval on to more modern histories.
• Skills to evaluate scholarly arguments and interpretations of transformations in South Asia through the analytics of sexuality, gender, and the body.
• Subject specific skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/history.internal/local/ModuleProformaMap/

• Key skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/History/ugrads/ModuleProformaMap/

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a combination of the following teaching methods:
• Lectures to set the foundations for further study and to provide the basis for the acquisition of subject specific knowledge. Lectures provide a broad framework which defines individual module content, introducing students to themes, debates and interpretations. In this environment, students are given the opportunity to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and reflection
• Seminars to allow students to present and critically reflect upon the acquired subject-specific knowledge, methodologies and theories, and to identify and debate a range of issues and differing opinions. The seminar is the forum in which students are given the opportunity to communicate ideas, jointly exploring themes and arguments. Seminars are structured to develop understanding and designed to maximise student participation related to prior independent preparation. Seminars give students the opportunity to develop oral communication skills, encourage critical and tolerant approaches to reasoned argument and historical discussion, build the students' ability to marshal historical evidence, and facilitate the development of the ability to summarise historical arguments, think in a rapidly changing environment and communicate in a persuasive and articulate manner, whilst recognising the value of working with others and, occasionally, towards shared goals.
• Assessment:
• Examinations test students ability to work under pressure, to prepare for examinations and direct their own programme of revision and learning, and develop key time management skills. The examination gives students the opportunity to develop relevant life skills such as the ability to produce coherent, reasoned and supported arguments under pressure. Students will be examined on subject specific knowledge.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative work done in preparation for and during seminars, including oral and written work as appropriate to the module. The summative coursework will have a formative element by allowing students to develop ideas and arguments for the examination and to practice writing to similar word limits.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University