禁漫天堂

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Skidmore College
First-Year Experience

Scribner Seminar Program
Course Decription

Extraordinary Bodies

Instructor(s): Susannah Mintz, English

What makes a body 鈥渆xtraordinary,鈥 and why do bodies that don鈥檛 fit established categories seem to provoke fear, confusion, pity, or wonder? This course focuses on the literary representation of bodies in some way disabled, disfigured, ill, or impaired. Our goal will be to investigate what so-called 鈥渇reaks鈥 or 鈥渕onsters鈥 tell us about prevalent social attitudes toward the body and identity, health and mortality, gender and sexuality. We鈥檒l investigate what symbolic meanings get attached to anomalous bodies, and how these have shifted over time, and consider what happens when disabled authors write their own stories. Reading drama, poetry, fiction, autobiography, and more, we鈥檒l explore the boundaries of the 鈥渘ormal,鈥 and consider the ways in which we are all only temporarily 鈥渁ble-bodied."

Course Offered: