Evaluation: students will be required to present a mid-semester work in process, followed by a finalized work at the end of the semester: these can take a written form (scholarly or literary) or a visual one (video, photography). Guidelines as to what each will require will be determined in conversation with the professor. close

What makes a face and what does a face mean today? We will examine this question from an interdisciplinary perspective: the historical emergence of the face as a locus of political and cultural importance since the antiquity; the anthropological and philosophical approaches to the face as a marker of identity, both personal and ethnic; the symbolic meanings of the face in the literature and the visual arts. We will address its centrality in the so-called science of eugenics established in the late 19th century and used to horrific ends in the 20th century, and its revival in the current technologies of surveillance through the creation of the largest facial archive ever imagined. We will not forget that the face as evidence has also been instrumental in human rights activism throughout the world. Finally, we will discuss voluntary (surgical) transformations of the face and changing ideals of beauty vis a vis masking, concealment, invisibility as well as forms of gender violence regarding the face. Two facial specialists, a cultural philosopher and a plastic surgeon will join us as guest speakers. Readings will include works by Kobo Abe, Chris Abani, Jorge Baron Biza, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Thomas Macho, Phillipe Lacon, plus art works by Bacon, Kahlo, Kirschner, Modigliani, and Sherman, among others. close