English 186 - Winter, 2015

Literature, Sexuality, and Gender

Class Information

Instructor: Jordan, Jessica Hope
CRN: 93572
Time: TR 4:40-6:00
Location: 207 Olson

Description

Literature, Gender, and Sexuality
ENL 186
Jessica Hope Jordan

Sex and gender have been a central concern in literature since its inception, seducing readers with the vicarious wish fulfillment of often forbidden desires. This course will explore diverse ideas of sex, gender, and sexuality through literature and film, while considering influences of major movements of literary history, censorship, film history and aesthetics, theories of sex and gender construction, intersections of race, as well as economic practices surrounding textual and media images of sex. The selected works of literature read and films viewed represent diverse takes on sex and sexuality,reflecting a perspective of pluralistic practices and constructed ideas of sexual identity, while considering multiple reading practices and viewing perspectives. The course design is thematic, mostly chronological, and focuses mainly on British and American literature and film but will, however, include a few especially influential works of world literature and international film. The course’s main focus is on exploring the fluid, often self-reflexive relationships of literature and film to the overall development of the discourses surrounding sex and sexuality in American society, as well as constructs of individual and national identity.

Prequisite: English 3 or UWP 1 (GE Credit Art/Hum/Writ)

Smartsite Course Reader: Critical articles and texts assigned for each week’s topics and films are required reading and can be accessed in PDF format in the Resources section of our Smartsite

Grading

Essay 1, 10%, Midterm Essay, 15%, Midterm Exam 20%, Final Research Essay, 25%, Final Exam, 15%, Class Participation, 15%

Texts

Literature and Gender, Robyn Weigman
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality, Abby Ferber
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Smartside Reader