Whiteness. Race and the shifting codes of social privilege 23-PIE-WRS

Tuesdays, 1.30-3.00 PM
First meeting 11th October

The aim of the course is to examine the concept of whiteness and its role in different historical, social and cultural contexts. The course will draw on theoretical frameworks elaborated in "whiteness studies" and will present the origins and development of this research field as well as its links to a wider spectrum of ethnicity, race, class and nationalism studies. Referring to the works of sociologists, historians, anthropologists, literary theorists and philosophers we will show how whiteness has organized and defined different systems of social privilege. We will point to the ways in which these systems are perpetuated by cultural patterns of valorisation present in Western and non-Western societies. We will also discuss the issue of whiteness in connection with the following topics: the genesis of an idea of white race and white supremacy, culturally constructed perceptions of the body and ideals of beauty, whiteness and class, whiteness and gender, whiteness and colorism. During the classes we will make use of scholarly works as well as popular representations and problematizations of whiteness that can be found in literature, visual arts, film or advertising.