Additional Topics or Ideas for
Final Project Groups
Theoretical approaches
- Working further with Butler on
gender/body
- Working further with Foucault on history
of sexuality
- Working further with other body theories
in history or culture (Thomas Laquer on the Making of Sex in early
modern Europe, for example
Genres
- Work further with any of the genres
studied esp. stories, jokes, myths, dress, adornment, gesture in
drama...
- Superstitions
- Ballads
- Folksongs
- Tales
- of a particular culture
- of a particular teller
- comparative themes, motifs
-
- Myths
- Medusa
- Changing sex, gender in South Asian
lore
-
- Creation myths
- Personal legends and stories (abortion
stories, childbirth stories, operation stories, maltreatment
stories, lost limbs, miracles; orthodontia; Dream stories;
first-time stories about menstruation, etc.)
- Doll-lore
- Barbie lore
-
- Proverbs
- Riddles
- Folk Remedies
- Folk games, folk pastimes
Children's learning body parts games
Children's hand-clapping games
Jump rope rhymes
- Lore associated with Sports
(weigh-lifting; practices)
- Children's songs, dirty songs
- Divinations (predicting sex of
baby)
- Dance
- Body tricks
- Masks
- Etiquette regarding body
- Taboos on use of various body parts
for certain activities (e.g. don't accept a gift with left hand
in Africa)
- Taboos on showing, talking about,
certain body parts
- Body substances and how to handle
them
-
- Euphemisms, Dypsphemisms
(circumlocutions for avoiding term, e.g. "making number one";
making term worse, obscene "piss")
Topics
- Menstruation, menopause
- Illness, health
- Abortion stories
- Leprosy stories
-
- Family folklore
- Witches
- Werewolves
- Vampires
- Aging
- Dieting, fat, thinness
- Eating disorders (stories, customs,
methods)
- Ethnicity and body (color, eye shape,
facial characteristics, other lore -- Nazi codification)
- Bible and folklore of body (Samson's
hair)
- Relics and reliquaries using body
parts
- SMBD
- Fetishes
- Grotesque body; carnival
- Levitation, out-of-body
experiences
- Death and dying
- Reproduction
- Disability, disorder
- Body types (fat person; tall/short
person; "freak," dyke body lore; giants; dwarfs;
- Beauty pageants
- Twins
- Family resemblance
- Look-alikes
- Hygiene, body care
- Gaze, objectification of body
- Advertising
- Cosmetics
- Beauty
- Punishment, torture
- Body Pleasures
- Sex toys
- Giants/Dwarves
- Healing
Body parts
- Teeth
- Skin (tanning, freckles,
birthmarks)
- More on piercing, tattoos
- Scarification
- Lips
- Body substances/excreta: urine, feces,
sweat, tears, blood, finger and toenails, eyelashes, saliva,
mucous
- Hands
- Feet (foot-binding; shoes)
- Erotic zones
- Missing limbs, phantom limbs; voluntary
amputations (see Atlantic
magazine)
- Genitals
- Hair (removing hair; facial hair
-- beards, mustaches; coloring; fashions; gendered styles)
- Blood
- Milk
- Breasts
- Mouth
Literature, film, art, pop
culture
- Disney treatment of folktale
- Frankenstein, other literature-
involving body change, artificial body
- Birthmarks in literature, epics, etc.
(Hawthorne's "Rappacini's Daughter")
- Monstrous humans in literature,
myth
- Science fiction
- Alice Walker novels on
clitoridectomy
- Alice in Wonderland
- Literature focusing on a body part, such
as Oedipus (swollen feet); Hedda Gabler
(hair; pregnant body)
- Bible stories, parables, other sacred
works
- Films dealing with body and food
(Tampopo)
- Films, literature dealing with body
torture, mutilation (The English
Patient)
- Films, plays on "freaks"
(The Elephant Man)
- Folkspeech
- Slang terms (pinkie)
- Obscenities (cunt, prick,
asshole)
- Folk metaphors using body references
(give X a big hand; brown nose)
- Using diglossic terms from a second
language or dialect (schnozz, tookus)
-
- Greetings, farewells (cultural; family;
secret group; ethnic)
- Kisses
- Hand routines
-
- Customs/rituals
- Weddings
- Initiations (circumcision of males;
clitoridectomy)
- Photo customs (baby pictures;
favorite poses)
-
- Occupational lore
- Sex worker lore
- Strippers
-
- Magical practices
- Voodoo on body
- Use of body parts for magic