ARTH 365 Gender and Art in Japan

This course examines the role of gender in the production and reception of visual images in Japan from the twelfth through the twenty-first centuries. Closely engaging with a variety of images, literary texts, and performances, we will investigate topics such as Buddhist conceptions of the feminine, same-sex sexuality and gender reversals in the medieval imagination, beauty prints and the politics of the gaze, changing conceptions of art and women in modern Japan, masquerades of masculinity, and the place of male-male sexuality in contemporary girl culture. Ultimately, this course will provide students with an understanding of how art and gender have been conceptualized in Japan, as well as tools to think beyond that understanding.