MIDTERM EXAM: Due Friday, 3/7 (or after break)

Midterm Exam

Imagining The Body

Spring 2014

Due March 7 (or after break) J

Please Answer The Following Questions using the material we have covered in the readings and in class discussion. Remember that we have not had time (snow…snow…etc.) to go over ALL the material in class. You will impress me by your ability to weave the material from the readings into your answers. Since I am late at getting this out to you, you may take the break if you wish to complete this assignment:

(1) The Body/Mind Connection: How does Cartesian Dualism define the relationship between mind and body? How has this affected the way that we see (have seen) and give the body meaning over time?

(2) Theory at the Foundations of Analysis: Compare and Contrast the theories of Phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty) and Symbolic Interactionism (Goffman) as it pertains to the analysis of the body? Give an example of the analysis of the body from each perspective.

(3) Social Norms & the Body: The Disabled Body carries a stigma (Goffman). Why is the “face” so important as a marker of normality and as a manager of the disabled body in American culture? Consider “Face Work” -Foucault, Hochschild, Goffman- and Grealy’s memoir in your discussion.

(4) Gender, Sex & the Body: Gender is a bodily performance of social norms attached to sexual identity and roles. How do the non-normative gender performances we have read about (tomboys, drag queens and kings, lesbians, transgendered) reveal the “enacted” nature of this performance? Use your readings!!!!!

(5) The Civilized Body & Taboo: Culture makes distinctions between things that are “pure” and things that are “dirty” (Douglas). How are our notions of contamination expressed in learned “body techniques” (Mauss)- body management and body taboos? (consider orifices-sex, elimination, etc.)