Gender, Difference and Power
Summary
This course consists of a general theoretical introduction to fundamental issues that are covered in greater depth in other courses of the master’s program. It is structured around the notions of “gender”, “difference” and “power”, and, above all, the interaction between these concepts. It focuses mainly on the manifestations of power over bodies and the resistances based on these bodies, in the field of sexuality, illness and abnormality in general. It seeks to question the naturalized discourses on these issues, including the boundaries of gender and of humanity.
What Do We Study
The primary sources are theoretical texts of the authors mentioned in the following section, and others such as Paul B. Preciado, Jack Halberstam, Françoise Collin, Monique Wittig, Roberto Esposito, Rosi Braidotti, Giorgio Agamben, or Cary Wolfe. To illustrate the theory, visual texts that vary each year (video clips, performances, commercials...) will also be analyzed.
Which is the Line of Thought
In line with its general intention, the theoretical bases of the course are diverse, but correspond mainly to the critical approach of the so-called postmodern thought (Foucault, Derrida, Cixous, Butler, Haraway, etc.).
Theoretical and Practical Approaches
(The bibliography will vary from year to year. The texts are available to students in the virtual campus well in advance in order to facilitate their reading before the sessions in which they will be discussed)
Braidotti, Rosi. “Conclusión.” Lo posthumano. Gedisa, 2015.
Butler, Judith. “Sujetos de sexo/género/deseo.” El género en disputa. El feminismo y la subversión de la identidad. Translated by Mónica Mosour & Laura Manríquez, Paidós, 2001.
Butler, Judith. “¿El fin de la diferencia sexual?.” Deshacer el género. Trans. by Patricia Soley Beltran, Paidós, 2006, p. 247-287.
Butler, Judith. Breaks in the Bond. Reflections on Kinship Trouble. UCL Housman Lecture, 2017.
Cixous, Hélène. “Cuentos de la diferencia sexual.” Lectora: Revista de dones i sexualitat. Trans. by Mara Negrón. no. 21, 2015, p. 209-231.
Collin, Françoise: “Praxis de la diferencia. Notas sobre lo trágico del sujeto.” Praxis de la diferencia: Liberación y libertad. Trans. by María Isabel Santa-Cruz. Icaria, 2006, p. 21-42.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé W. “Cartografiando los márgenes. Interseccionalidad, políticas identitarias, y violencia contra las mujeres de color,” Intersecciones: Cuerpos y sexualidades en la encrucijada. Coord. by Raquel Lucas Platero. Bellaterra, 2012, p. 87-122.
Derrida, Jacques. “La différance”. Márgenes de la filosofia. Trans. by Carmen González Marín (with corrections by Horacio Potel). Cátedra, 1998.
Derrida, Jacques. El animal que luego estoy si(gui)endo. Trotta, 2008.
Derrida, Jacques & Christie V. McDonald. “Coreografías.” Diacritics. vol. 12, no. 2., 1982.
Esposito, Roberto. Communitas. Origen y destino de la comunidad. Amorrortu, 2003, p. 21-49.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “Duelo a los dualismos”. Cuerpos sexuados. La política de género y la construcción de la sexualidad. Trans. by Ambrosio García Leal. Melusina, 2006, p. 15-46.
Foucault, Michel. “Poder-Cuerpo” & “Las relaciones de poder penetran en los cuerpos.” Microfísica del poder. Ed. & trans. by J. Varela & F. Álvarez Uría. Las Ediciones de la Piqueta, 1979. 2nd ed., p. 103-110 & 153-162.
Haraway, Donna J. “Manifiesto para cyborgs: ciencia, tecnología y feminismo socialista a finales del siglo XX.” Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres. La reinvención de la naturaleza. Trans. by Manuel Talens. Cátedra Feminismos, 1995, p. 251-263.
Lugones, María. “Hacia un feminismo decolonial.” La manzana de la discòrdia. vol. 6, no. 2, Dec 2011, p. 105-119.
Preciado, Paul B. “La era farmacopornográfica.” Testo yonqui. Espasa Calpe, 2008, p. 25-34.
Stone, Sandy. “El imperio contraataca. Un manifiesto postransexual.” Políticas trans. Una antología de textos desde los estudios trans norteamericanos. Pol Galofre & Miquel Missé, eds. Egales, 2015, p. 31-65.
Valencia, Sayak. “Transfeminismo(s) y capitalismo gore.” Transfeminismos. Epistemes, fricciones y flujos. Compilated by Miriam Solá & Elena Urko, Txalaparta, 2014. 3rd ed., p. 109-117.
Wittig, Monique. “El pensamiento heterosexual.” El pensamiento heterosexual y otros ensayos. Trans. by Javier Sáez & Paco Vidarte. Egales, 2010, p. 45-57.
Wolfe, Cary. “Introduction”. What is Posthumanism?. University of Minnesota Press, 2010, p. xi-xxxiv.