Studying at York
Gender & Violence - ENG00162M
- Department: English and Related Literature
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
This interdisciplinary module provides a foundation for thinking about how we approach gender and violence from a theoretical feminist perspective, where gender is understood as it intersects with categories such as race, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, sexuality, age. Understanding gender as constitutive of how we think about violence, the module interrogates key theorists on violence, critiquing these from a feminist perspective that draws and builds on foundational second-wave feminist analyses of the subject of violence against women.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
This interdisciplinary module explores different theoretical and conceptual approaches to violence from an explicitly feminist perspective, drawing and building on foundational second-wave feminist analyses of the subject of violence against women. It is particularly concerned with the intersections between violence and gender, where gender is understood as it intersects with categories such as race, ethnicity, dis/ability, age, sexuality, class. Interrogating key theorists on violence, and, in particular, critiquing these from a feminist and gendered perspective as their ideas are applied to contemporary and historical examples of violence, the module will ask the following questions: How does violence differentially affect gendered bodies and gendered lives?; What are the gendered lacunae in established approaches to violence?; What are the connections between different forms or modalities of violence – structural, symbolic, normative, linguistic, aesthetic and direct – and what role does gender play here?; What are the limits of the term ‘violence’?; How might real-world examples of violence challenge these theoretical and conceptual frameworks?; Finally, what is the nature of feminist investments in the subject of violence and can violence ever be a ‘feminist practice’ (Melzer, 2015)?
Module learning outcomes
After successfully completing this module students should:
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Be able to demonstrate a critical, nuanced understanding of key theoretical approaches to violence from a feminist perspective
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Be attuned to the intersections between violence and gender with a particular appreciation of how violence differentially affects gendered bodies and gendered lives
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Be able to successfully apply theoretical and conceptual approaches to violence and gender to real-world examples, testing the limits of these approaches
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Have enhanced their skills at oral presentation and essay writing.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Provisional feedback (subject to external examiners' approval or Exam Board ratification) is due to students on Monday Week 2 of Semester 2.
Indicative reading
Arendt, Hannah. On Violence. London: Allen Lane, 1970.
Brownmiller, Susan. Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape. London: Secker and Warburg, 1975.
Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable. London; New York: Verso, 2009.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth, trans. by Constance Farrington. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.
Galtung, Johan. ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research’. Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1969): 167-191.
Melzer, Patricia. Death in the Shape of a Young Girl: Women’s Political Violence in the Red Army Faction. New York and London: New York University Press, 2015.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Violence in War and Peace. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
Wilcox, Lauren B. Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Žižek, Slavoj. Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. London: Profile, 2008.