Reading and composition in connection with the study of dramatic literature. R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R1B satisfies the second half.

What does the figure of the Asian woman reveal about the racial, gendered, and sexual dynamics of the dominant culture from which it emerges? How do Asian women artists wrestle with and take agency over their representation? This interdisciplinary course considers the Asian woman as an exoticized and fetishized subject through the lens of visual and performance studies. We will analyze contemporary theater, film, and performance art from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, including work by Patty Chang, Sin Wai Kin, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, May Maylisa Cat, Yoko Ono, and Laurel Nakadate. Centering their own bodies as the primary medium and often engaging the participation of spectators, these artists challenge, subvert, and reappropriate ideas of Asian femininity and Oriental otherness. This course prepares students to write at a university level and fulfills the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Students will learn how to read theoretical texts and scholarship, to analyze media and performance, to form compelling arguments, and to critically engage with these ideas through writing, feedback, and revision. Drawing from gender and sexuality studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, queer studies, and performance studies, we will discuss how these artists use performance as an embodied practice to understand the experience of Asian womanhood.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Language Requirement.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills