READING VICTORIAN SEXUALITIES

Texts:

Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (1847)

Michel Foucault: The History of Sexuality Volume 1

H.Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines (1885)

Oscar Wilde: Complete Shorter Fiction (1889)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Neil Bartlett: Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde (1988)

Anonymous: The Autobiography of a Flea (and other Tart Tales)

Chris White (ed): Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality

 

Course Reader -- available from the English Department Office, Rice 130.

Course Description:

This course starts with the premise that contemporary conceptions of sexuality constantly refer back to Victorian values. In this course, we will explore the emergence of sexual discourse in Victorian Britain, considering the degree to which current critical concepts of "identity" and "desire" influence or grow out of readings of nineteenth-century sexual expression and repression. The majority of our primary texts are Victorian, but we will read these alongside twentieth-century texts that read sex back into or out of the Victorian age. We will also make extensive use of current critical and theoretical studies on sex and sexuality. This course will be in constant dialogue with the notion that sex is historically constructed and will chart changes and continuities in questions of identity and ideology.

Assignments:

One 6-8 page paper DUE OCT 12 IN CLASS

One 3-page response to a critical text DUE NOV 9

One 10-12 page paper DUE DEC 14 IN CLASS

In addition, there are 2 prep-papers scheduled. I will take in your prep-papers, but will grade them on a simple check, check minus/plus system.

Papers must be typed, double-spaced and with one-inch margins.

Written assignments are due at the beginning of the class for which they are assigned unless otherwise noted. Late work will drop one third of a grade per day (e.g. from B to B -), unless you have met with me in advance of the due date and we have made a special arrangement. Please note that final papers are due on the last day of class.

Attendance & Participation:

Class discussion is an essential part of this course. Attendance and class participation are therefore required. I expect you to have completed the assigned reading for that class and to be prepared to make thoughtful contributions to discussion. Five unexcused absences will constitute grounds for a "No Entry." If you are struggling with attendance or with the class workload, you must let me know: if you communicate with me about it, we can work on the problem.

Discussion Groups:

During the first two weeks of the course, I will divide up the class into small groups that will meet inside and outside of class throughout the semester in order to work on responses to reading and ideas for individual paper projects. Each group will have the responsibility of presenting their ideas and leading class discussion at least once during the semester. Please understand that responsible participation in this scheme will contribute to your overall grade.

Grading:

Short paper, long paper: 70%

Class participation, preparation and presentation work: 30%

Schedule:

Tuesday Sep 5

Introduction

Real History

Thursday Sep7	Carol Ann Duffy: "Warming Her Pearls" extracts from Anne Lister diaries David Halperin: "Is There a History of Sexuality?"
Tuesday Sep12	Oscar Wilde: "The Portrait of Mr W.H." Shakespeare sonnets Bring 2-page prep-paper
Thursday Sep14	Michel Foucault: The History of Sexuality Vol.1 An Introduction, chapters 1 & 2
Tuesday Sep19	Michel Foucault: The History of Sexuality Vol.1 An Introduction, chapters 3, 4 & 5 PRESENTATION ON HISTORY OF SEXUALITY: GROUP ONE

Manly Love and Poetry

Thursday Sep21	Alfred Tennyson:"In Memoriam" I-LXXXV
Tuesday Sep 26	Alfred Tennyson:"In Memoriam" LXXXV- end Christopher Craft , ""Descend, and Touch, and Enter": Tennyson's Strange Manner of Address" Jeff Nunokawa, " "All the Sad Young Men": AIDS and the Work of Mourning" [both in reader]

Straight with a passion

Thursday Sep 28	Jane Eyre ch.1-20
Tuesday Oct 3	Jane Eyre ch.20-end Bring 2-page prep-paper

The 'invention' of the homosexual

Thursday Oct 5	Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde
Tuesday Oct 10	Wilde trial and other legal materials [in sourcebook] PRESENTATION ON WILDE TRIAL: GROUP 2
Thursday Oct 12	SHORT PAPER DUE
Tuesday Oct 17 Thursday Oct 19	FALL BREAK
Tuesday Oct 24	Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Thursday Oct 26	Walter Pater, extracts from The Renaissance [in reader]

Sexologies

Tuesday Oct 31	Edward Carpenter, extract from Homogenic Love [in sourcebook]
Thursday Nov 2	Richard Burton, extract from The Thousand Nights and a Night John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, extract from Sexual Inversion [in sourcebook] PRESENTATION ON SEXOLOGY: GROUP 3
Tuesday Nov 7	film: Zero Patience Please note that class will over-run.

Sexuality and colonialism

Thursday Nov 9	NO CLASS 3-PAGE REVIEW OF CRITICAL TEXT DUE
Tuesday Nov 14	H.Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Thursday Nov 16	PRESENTATION ON COLONIAL FANTASY:GROUP 4 Christopher Lane, The Ruling Passion, chapter 2 [on reserve] Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather introduction [on reserve]

Sapphisms

Tuesday Nov 21	Michael Field poetry [in sourcebook]
Thursday Nov 23	Thanksgiving &endash; Free Day
Tuesday Nov 28	Chris White, "'Poets and lovers evermore': interpreting female love in the poetry and journals of Michael Field [in reader] Lillian Faderman Surpassing the Love of Men II:1-5 [on reserve]
Thursday Nov 30	Amy Levy poetry [in reader] PRESENTATION ON LESBIAN POETICS: GROUP 5
Tuesday Dec 5	Eliza Lynn Linton, 'The Epicene Sex' [in reader] Virginia Woolf: "Geraldine and Jane" Martha Vicinus, "They wonder to which sex I belong': The Historical Roots of the Modern Lesbian Identity" [both in reader]

Pornography

Thursday Dec 7

Autobiography of a Flea

Ventriloquizing Prostitution

Tuesday Dec 12	Augusta Webster, "A Castaway": Dante G.Rossetti, "Jenny" [both in reader]
Thursday Dec 14	Final paper due CLASS DINNER 7pm