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Academic Year 2005/2006


Historicizing Early Modern Sexualities
ENGL 250 SP

Crosslistings:
WMST 275

This course will examine recent historical and theoretical approaches to the history of sexuality in the early modern period. Our focus will be the historical construction of sexuality in relation to categories of gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion and status in a variety of cultural forms, including literary texts, medical treatises, travel narratives, and visual media. Some of the topics we will cover include: sexed / gendered / racialized constructions of the body, forms of sexuality prior to the homo/hetero divide, and the history of prostitution and pornography.

MAJOR READINGS

Primary Texts:
Pietro Aretino, DIALOGUES AND I MODI (THE POSTURES)
Richard Barnfield, THE AFFECTIONATE SHEPHERD
Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, THE HONEST WHORE, PARTS I and II
John Lyly, GALLATHEA
Christopher Marlowe, HERO AND LEANDER AND EDWARD II
Thomas Nashe, A CHOICE OF VALENTINES
William Shakespeare, SONNETS
Antonio Vignali, LA CAZZARIA (THE BOOK OF THE PRICK)

Secondary Texts:
Alan Bray, HOMOSEXUALITY IN RENAISSANCE ENGLAND
Michel Foucault, THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, VOLUME I
David Frantz, FESTUM VOLUPTATIS: A STUDY OF RENAISSANCE EROTICA
David Halperin, HOW TO DO THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Thomas Laqueur, SOLITARY SEX: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF MASTURBATION AND MAKING SEX
Betty Talvacchia, TAKING POSITIONS: ON THE EROTIC IN RENAISSANCE CULTURE
Valerie Traub, THE RENAISSANCE OF LESBIANISM IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND
James Grantham Turner, SCHOOLING SEX: LIBERTINE LITERATURE AND EROTIC EDUCATION IN ITALY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Several short papers and a longer, final research paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course satisfies the English Department pre-1800 requirement, and may be taken as a Research Option course.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Korda,Natasha    
Times: ...W... 07:00PM-09:50PM;     Location: DWNY100;
Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 20)
SR. major: 5   Jr. major: 5
SR. non-major: 5   Jr. non-major: 5   SO: X   FR: X

Special Attributes:
Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006


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