Hoberman, Ruth

English

Eastern Illinois University

Eastern Illinois UniversityThe KeepSpring 2001 2001Spring 1-15-2001ENG 5006-001: Modern SexualitiesRuth HobermanEastern Illinois UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_spring2001Part of the English Language and Literature CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the 2001 at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spring 2001 by an authorizedadministrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact tabruns@eiu.edu.Recommended CitationHoberman, Ruth, "ENG 5006-001: Modern Sexualities" (2001). Spring 2001. 133.http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_spring2001/133~OOU;-00/ Eng. 5006: Modernist Sexualities Ruth Hoberman Phone: 581-6289; e-mail: cfrh@eiu.edu Spring 2001 Office CH339A; Office hours: 1: 15-2: 15 MWF; 10-11 F and by appointment 1 Goals: I have two main goals for the class. 1. To get a better understanding of British fiction of the period 1890-1928. This is a somewhat unconventional period, bridging the "transition" and "high modernism," and my syllabus is somewhat unconventional, including both canonical and noncanonical writers. My goal in this respect is to redefine "modernism" so that it includes the cultural tensions and upheavals of the 1890s and early 1900s as well as the stylistic experimentation of the 1920s. 2. To begin to understand how the representation of sexuality in literature responds to and shapes cultural shifts. Many historians argue that in the late nineteenth century, a change occurred in the way people wrote and talked about sexuality. Sexologists became increasingly concerned with categorizing sexual behavior as either ''normal" or "deviant," while social commentators discussed eugenics, social purity, the birth rate, venereal disease, unmarried women, prostitution, homosexuality, and subsidized motherhood-all concerns related to the regulation of sexuality. We'll discuss how the novels of the period entered into and shaped these conversations. Policies: English Department statement on plagiarism: Any teacher who discovers an act ofplagiarism--"The appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and/or thoughts of another author and representation of them as one's original work" (Random House Dictionary of the English Language) --has the right and the responsibility to impose upon the guilty student an appropriate penalty, up to and including immediate assignment of a grade of F for the assigned essay and a grade ofNC for the course, and to report the incident to the Judicial Affairs Office. If you have a documented disability and wish to receive academic accommodations, please contact the Coordinator of the Office of Disability Services (581-6583) as soon as possible.· Requirements: paper ( 10-15 pp.), final exam, two oral presentations, careful preparation of reading assignments, journal, and participation in class discussion Grades: 20% exam 20% presentations/participation 30%journal 30% paper Presentations: Each member of the class will be asked to do two oral presentations of 10-20 minutes each. One should be on a critical essay regarding the assigned text; another on a related cultural phenomenon: an event, book, or figure. I have tried to list several essays for each week, so that you may choose from among them; an * indicates I have the essay in my office and would be happy to make you a copy. Many are also available at the library. While only the presenter MUST read the critical essay assigned for e~ch week, I urge you all to read whatever you have time for. 2 Sometimes critical essays are difficult or make references to knowledge you may not have. For research on the cultural phenomenon/historical event, you may have trouble finding relevant material. PLEASE COME SEE ME if you have questions or just want to talk over the reading. It is your obligation to gain an adequate understanding of the material before you present it to the class. Journals: In preparation for each class, I'd like you to write about the reading for that week in your journal (about 300-500 words). You need not focus solely on sexuality; comment on whatever strikes you as surprising, disturbing, unclear, or thought-provoking. As the semester progresses, you might also look for connections and contrasts among the works read. At the ehd of your entry, write 1-3 questions that grow out of your reading. These could be straightforward questions, to which you simply want an answer, or issues you're interesting in discussing as a class. After each class, I'd like you to write again BEFORE you begin the next week's reading, commenting on the discussion, pinpointing where you agree or disagree with the class's readings of the novels. Keep your journal in mind as a place to explore possible paper topics, to link ideas raised in presentations to the literary texts, to see connections between your own ideas and others'. Paper: Your paper could grow out of an oral presentation, or out of a particular interest in one of the assigned texts, or out of your interest in another work from the period that you feel could be read profitably in terms of its treatment of sexuality. I will meet with you individually to discuss topics. Plan ahead; any research will probably require interlibrary loans, which often take at least two weeks. Tentative syllabus W Jan 10: introduction to the class W 17: Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray. The trial of Oscar Wilde "The Disappearance of the Homosexual in the Picture of Dorian Gray." JeffNunokawa. In Professions of Desire: Lesbian and Gay Studies in Literature. Ed. George E. Haggert and Bonnie Zimmerman.* Bristow, Joseph. "Wilde, Dorian Gray, and gross indecency." In Sexual Sameness, J. Bristow, ed.* Martin, Robert. "Parody and Homage: The Presence of Pater in Dorian Gray." Victorian Newsletter 63 (Spring 1983): 15-18. W 24: Hardy, Jude the Obscure James M. Harding. "The Signification of Arabella's Missile: Feminine Sexuality, Masculine Anxiety and Revision in Jude the Obscure. "Journal of Narrative Technique. 26 (Winter 1996): 85-111. W 31: Jude Richard Dellamora, "Male Relations in TH's Jude the Obscure." Papers on Language and Literature. 27 (Fall 1991): 453-72. Nordau's Degeneration Contemporary responses to Jude. W Feb 7: Showalter, Daughters of Decadence Martha Vicinus, "The Adolescent Boy: Fin-de-Siecle Femme Fatale?'' Kathy Psomiades, "Still Burning from this Strangling Embrace": Vernon Lee on Desire and Aesthetics" both in Richard Dellamora, ed. Victorian Sexual Dissidence* The Men's and Women's Club c.~:.~ J !3iographical background on Schreiner, Egerton, Lee, Mew, OR Leverson. Iha. 't'-)1.oic. i!.c>o~ i\ W 14: Wells, Ann Veronica The women's movement and sexuality (1880s-1914) Allett, John. "The Ambivalent Feminism of Ann Veronica. Studies in the Humanities 20 (June 1993): 63-75. The birth control movement (1880s-1920) Government-supported maternity The WSPU W21: Forster, Maurice The publication history of Maurice Harned, Jon. "Becoming Gay in E.M. Forster's Maurice." Papers on Language and Literature. 29 (Winter 1993): 49-66. Fletcher, John. "Forster's Self-Erasure: Maurice and the Scene of Masculine Love." Sexual Sameness, Joseph Bristow, ed.* W 28: Mansfield, Stories: "Bliss," "Prelude," "At the Bay" D' Arey, "Katherine Mansfield's Bliss: The Rare Fiddle as Emblem of the Political and Sexual Alienation of Women. Papers on Language and Literature 35 (Summer 1999): 244-69. Moran, Patricia. Word of Mouth: Body Language in Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Mortimer, Armine. "Fortifications of Desire: Reading the Second Story in Katherine Mansfield's Bliss." Narrative 2 (Jan 1994): 41-52. W March 7: Lawrence, Women in Love The prologue to Women in Love Ingersoll, Earl. "Staging the Gaze in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love. Studies in the Novel. 26 (Fall 1994): 268-80. Lawrence's legal problems. Spring Break W 21: Lawrence, Women in Love 3 Otto Weininger The Lawrence/Mansfield/Murry relationship Doherty, Gerald. "Ars Erotica or Scientia Sexualis? Narrative Vicissitudes in D. H. Lawrence's women in Love. Journal of Narrative Technique 26 (Spring 1996): 137-57. Marie Stopes, Married Love W 28: Bryher, Development and Two Selves. Havelock Ellis H.D. Collecott, Diana. "Bryher's Two Selves as Lesbian Romance." In Romance Revisited. Jackie Stacey and Lynne Pearce, eds.* W April 4: Hall, The Well of Loneliness 4 Backus, Margo. "Sexual Orientation in the (Post) Imperial Nation: Celticism and Inversion Theory in Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 15 (Fall 1996): 253-66. Esther Newton, "The M}thic Mannish Lesbian: Radclyffe Hall and the New Woman."Signs 9 (1984): 557-75. W 11: Well of Loneliness Marcus, Jane. "Sapphistory: The Woolf and the Well." Lesbian Texts and Contexts. Karla Jay ed. [if you know Woolf s A Room of One's Own]* Glasgow, Joanne. "What's Nice Lesbian like you Doing in the Church ofTorquemada." also in Jay.* The obscenity trial W 18: Orlando Knopp, Sherron. "lfl saw you would you kiss me?" Sapphism and the Subversiveness ofVW's Orlando. PMLA 103 (1988): 31* Cervetti, Nancy. "In the Breeches, Petticoats, and Pleasures of Orlando. Journal of Modern Literature 20. (Winter 1996): 165-75.* Rossel, David. "The Significance of Constantinople in Orlando. Papers on Language and Literature. 28 (Fall 1992): 398-416. Schaffer, Talia. "Posing Orlando." Sexual Artifice. Ed. Ann Kibbey et al.26-63. * Bruns, Christy. "Re-dressing Feminist Identities: Tensions between Essential and Constructed Seelves in Virginia Woolfs Orlando. Twentieth Century Literature 40 (Fall 1994): 342-64. W 25: Review/discussion There will be a final exam during final exam week. Below is a very selective collection ofresources. Come ask if you have questions, particularly about works on individual authors. Modernism Beckson, Karl. London in the 1890s. Kem, Stephen. The Culture ofTime and Space 1880-1914 Bradbury, Malcolm, and James Mcfarlane, eds. Modernism: 1890-1930. Ellmann, Richard. Edwardians and Late Victorians. Ellmann, Richard, and Charles Feidelson Jr.,eds. The Modem Tradition Faulkner, Peter. Modernism Hynes, Samuel. The Edwardian Tum of Mind Rose, Jonathan. The Edwardian Temperament Modernism/Gender/Sexuality Ardis, Ann. New Women, New Novels Benstock, Shari. Women of the Left Bank Chamberlin, J. Edward, ed. Degeneration: The Dark side of Progress Dellamora, Richard, Ed. Victorian Sexual Dissidence ---.Masculine Desire: the Sexual Politics of Victorian Aestheticism Djikstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity Doan, Laura,ed. The Lesbian Postmodem ---.Old Maids to Radical Spinsters Felski, Rita. The Gender of Modernity Gilbert, Susan and Sandra Gubar. No Man's Land. Jeffreys, Sheila. The Spinster and her Enemies. Rado, The Modem Androgyne Imagination: A Failed Sublime Scott, Bonnie Kime, ed. The Gender of Modernism. Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle Snyder, Katherine. Bachelors, Manhood and the Novel. Walkowitz, Judith. City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London The history and theory of gender and sexuality Barret-Ducroco, Love in the Time of Victoria Bland, Lucy and Laura Doan, Sexology in Culture Butler, Gender Trouble Chauncey, George. "From Sexual lnverson to Homosexuality: Medicine and the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviance." Salmagundi 58-9 (Fall-Winter 1982): 114-46. Garber, Vested Interests Faderman, Lillian. Surpassing the Love of Men. Foucault, The History of Sexuality Laqueur, The Making of Sex Lynch, Michael. "Here is Adhesiveness: From Friendship to Homosexuality." Victorian Studies 29 (Autumn 1985): 67-96. Mason, Michael. The Making of Victorian Sexuality Murphy, Peter. Fictions of Masculinity: Crossing Cultures, Crossing Sexualities Rich, Adrienne. "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." In Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. Ed. Ann Snitow et al. Sedgwick, Eve, Between Men: English Literature an Male Homosocial Desire 5 ---. The Epistemology of the Closet Weeks, Jeffrey. Making Sexual History. ---. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. 6 The web also has valuable resources including Voice of the Shuttle, Victorian Web, Index of Web Sites on Modernism. Modernism Timeline. The journals Modernism/Modernity and Modern Fiction Studies are available on-line to subscribers to Project Muse (includes EIU). The library also has periodicals from the period: Yellowbook BJackwood's (1902-) Edinburgh Review ( 1900-) Mind (on psychology and philosophy) Times Literary Supplement (1902-) Review of Reviews (1890-) 

ENG 5006-001: Modern Sexualities

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ENG 5006-001: Modern Sexualities

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