Spring 2000	Kate Thomas
English 319 TTh 3:00-4:15	Rice 28 x8918
King 237	Office Hours: M&W 3:00-4:15 or by appt.

READING VICTORIAN SEXUALITIES

Texts:

Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (1847)

Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

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

Walter Pater: The Renaissance (1888)

Oscar Wilde: "The Portrait of Mr.W.H." in Complete Shorter Fiction (1889)

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

Marie Belloc Lowndes: The Lodger (1913)

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

 

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 MARCH 23 IN CLASS

One 10-12 page paper DUE MAY 11 IN CLASS

Additional, short prep-papers may be assigned.

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. 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. Three or more unexcused absences will adversely affect your grade and five unexcused absences will constitute grounds for a "No Entry." If you are ill and infectious, don't drag yourself to class, just email or call me to let me know.

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 Feb 8

Introduction

Real History

Thursday Feb 10	Carol Ann Duffy: "Warming Her Pearls" extracts from Anne Lister diaries David Halperin: "Is There a History of Sexuality?"
Tuesday Feb 15	Oscar Wilde: "The Portrait of Mr W.H." Shakespeare sonnets
Thursday Feb 17	Michel Foucault: "We 'Other Victorians'" and "The Repressive Hypothesis" from The History of Sexuality Vol.1 An Introduction

Manly Love and Poetry

Tuesday Feb 22	Alfred Tennyson:"In Memoriam"
Thursday Feb 24	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] 3-PAGE REVIEW OF CRITICAL TEXT DUE

Straight with a passion

Tuesday Feb 29	Jane Eyre
Thursday March 2	Jane Eyre

The 'invention' of the homosexual

Tuesday March 7	Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde
Thursday March 9	Wilde trial and other legal materials [in reader] PRESENTATION ON WILDE TRIAL: GROUP 1
Tuesday March 14	Walter Pater, The Renaissance Edward Carpenter, extract from Homogenic Love [in reader]

Children, sexuality and colonialism

Thursday March 16	H.Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Tuesday March 21	PRESENTATION ON COLONIAL FANTASY: GROUP 2 Christopher Lane, The Ruling Passion, chapter 2 [on reserve] Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather introduction [on reserve]
Thursday March 23	Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland SHORT PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Tuesday March 28	SPRING BREAK
Thursday March 30	SPRING BREAK

Sapphisms

Tuesday April 4	Michael Field poetry [in reader] 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 April 6	Amy Levy poetry [in reader] PRESENTATION ON LESBIAN POETICS: GROUP 3 Eliza Lynn Linton, 'The Epicene Sex' [in reader]:
Tuesday April 11	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]
Thursday April 13	Visual culture and sexuality: museum presentation.

Sexologies

Tuesday April 18	film: Zero Patience Please note that class will over-run.
Thursday April 20	Richard Burton, extract from The Thousand Nights and a Night John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, extract from Sexual Inversion [in reader] PRESENTATION ON SEXOLOGY: GROUP 4

Pornography

Tuesday April 25	Autobiography of a Flea
Thursday April 27	Autobiography of a Flea and porn/perfomativity materials [in reader]

Ventriloquizing Prostitution

Tuesday May 2	Augusta Webster, "A Castaway": Dante G.Rossetti, "Jenny" [ both in reader]
Thursday May 4	William Acton: extracts from Prostitution Josephine Butler "An Appeal to the People of England" [ both in reader]
Tuesday May 9	Marie Belloc Lowndes: The Lodger and "Child Assault in England" [essay in reader]
Thursday May 11	FINAL PAPERS DUE IN CLASS