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Conceptions of the Body in Art and Fashion History - HOA00097I

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

This module investigates the interconnections between art history, fashion history, and changing conceptions of the human body.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

The presentation of human bodies in visual art is intimately connected to whether and how those bodies are dressed. This module explores the intersections between varied representations of the body in art history and varied conceptions of the body in fashion history. We will study how dress has historically moulded bodies according to social and cultural expectations, while fashion in turn has shaped bodily representations in visual media. We will further investigate how expectations about dressed bodies in different time periods and cultures relate to contextual factors such as age, gender, health and social status.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • Knowledge of a varied range of depictions of dress in artworks.
  • Ability to critically analyse how representations of dressed bodies in artworks relate to fashion history.
  • Understanding of how conceptions and representations of dressed human bodies are inflected by specific cultural and social factors.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Tutor and/or Supervisor during their office hours.

Indicative reading

  • Campbell, Timothy. Historical Style: Fashion and the New Mode of History, 1740-1830. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
  • Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Polity, 2023.
  • Entwistle, Joanne, and Elizabeth Wilson, eds. Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg, 2001.
  • Koda, Harold. Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.
  • Twigg, Julia. Fashion and Age: Dress, the Body and Later Life. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.