ARTH 360 Women and Art in East Asia

This course explores the relationship between art and women in East Asia from ancient times to the present. We will study the various ways in which women have been engaging with art—as producers, as patrons, and as objects or subjects of the gaze. At the same time, we will examine how women and gender have been conceived and contested in East Asia. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate topics such as women artists and patrons; Buddhist conceptions of the feminine and women’s devotional practices; performing “women” in theater; shifting ideals of beauty and the alteration of women’s bodies; and the representation of gender in contemporary popular culture. Ultimately, students will develop critical tools for examining how women have been represented in visual culture and how they have exerted their own artistic agency in East Asia.