SJSD 12 Sexuality and Religion in the Arts

Examines the negotiation of religion and sexuality in the arts, which may include visual art, music, dance, poetry, drama, film, graphic novels, animation, and other artistic formats.  Like verbal texts, the arts structure signs to create meaning. The course also addresses the religious regulation of the arts as an aspect of the regulation of sexuality.  Cross-cultural and cross-historical examples will allow students to find common patterns and significant differences in artistic representations of religion and sexuality.  Questions of power with regard to representation – who gets to represent whom? – will be central to course.