Spring 2009

WGS 340 • Gender/Sex/Fam Indian Rel/Culs-W

Course Description

This course will provide the student with a comprehensive overview of gender issues as they are represented in the great textual traditions of India (these categories include Vedic materials, medical literature, treatises on law and sexual behavior, and texts that outline the great debates over questions of gender identity and salvation preserved for us in certain Jaina and Buddhist materials). To make these classical texts more relevant, readings in recent anthropological studies will also be included to enable the student to trace recurring themes, images, and symbols. The student will thereby gain a sense of continuity of traditions and attitudes as well as generative innovations and contemporary variants within them

back