According to some traditional accounts of society and of subjectivity, the body's role is what may not - as mortal, or medical - be socialized. Natural, or primitive, or super -sophisticated, the body is often understood to set limits to the reaches of social relations.This course will question these understandings by exploring the representations of "the body" in a wide range of media from visual images and medical records to literary texts, accounts of war, and human rights reports. Questions of cultural representation, identity, and power will form the focal point of the reading and discussions on different theories of the human body.