Sexuality and American Culture

SEXUALITY AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Interdepartmental Humanities Seminar
Spring Term 2009
Brooklyn College Registration
SCP 50, ENG, CMPLT, CLAS, PHIL 74.7

PROFESSOR:   Lee Quinby, leequinby@aol.com
Office hours:  Wed. and Thurs., 2:30 to 4:00 PM, at Macaulay Honors College

TECHNOLOGY FELLOW:  Dominic Wetzel, dominic.wetzel@gmail.com
Office hours:  Thursday, 2:30 to 4:10 PM        

How does sexuality intersect with history?  “What’s love got to do with it”?  How have cultural productions commented on the power of sexuality and the relations of power that govern it?  This course will focus on such questions to investigate issues of sexuality, regulation, surveillance, and resistance in the context of American culture.  We will draw on the work of Michel Foucault to provide an analytical framework regarding links between sexuality and what he calls “power/knowledge.”  We will explore historical documents and analyses that show how sexuality has been shaped and reshaped as shifts occur within family, economic, and medical structures. By examining the history of changing attitudes toward and practices of sexuality from the colonial era to the present day, we will consider ways in which discourses of law, love, religion, medicine, literature, and the media produce what Foucault called a “deployment of sexuality.”  And we will reflect on the myriad cultural forces that have challenged that deployment.

   
REQUIRED TEXTS (in order of assignment)       

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
Kathy Peiss, ed., Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Toni Morrison, Sula
Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Parts I and II
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

RECOMMENDED

John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, 2nd edition

Course objectives

Knowledge Bases

Students should:
•    develop ability to understand and analyze texts with sexual themes and images
•    develop understanding of literature and print and visual media in their interdisciplinary contexts (e.g., cultural, social, historical, scientific, psychological, and political)
•    understand rhetorical strategies and power relations of sexualized discourse
•    learn to appreciate textual and imagistic complexity, ambiguity, and paradox
•    learn to identify sexual styles in the context of historical periods
•    develop ability to understand and apply literary/critical theory
•    develop understanding of interrelation of language, culture, and society

Academic Skills

Students should:
•    be able to reason, think critically, evaluate, use evidence, and make judgments
•    be able to write clearly and imaginatively, in a variety of forms and for a variety of purposes and audiences
•    use appropriate conventions of language, including correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
•    be able to revise
•    be able to use the library to find appropriate print and electronic sources
•    develop a sense of fairness, objectivity, and accuracy in reporting
•    understand the ethics of research and writing, including the proper citation, and integration, of source materials into their work and the meaning and consequences of plagiarism
•    develop listening skills
•    develop ability to speak effectively

Social and Personal Skills

Students should:
•    learn to be self-reflecting   
•    develop ability to work cooperatively
•    engage in civil debate
•    develop respect for both intellectual and cultural diversity

Course Requirements

Attendance is required for all of our classes and more than 2 absences from regularly scheduled classes will result in a lowered grade (one full level).  In the event of an illness or unexpected reason for missing class, an official excuse must be obtained to avoid the grade penalty.  Attendance includes a visit to the Museum of Sexuality.

Class participation is crucial to the lecture/discussion format of this course and includes Website participation as well as class discussion. Your class participation will be judged on the basis of the quality of the ideas expressed, their relationship to the reading, and the force of your arguments, your respect for other class members’ and my points of view (as shown in the way you respond to others’ ideas), and your attentiveness to the discussion.  

Writing assignments are to be handed in according to the schedule. Two-page, typed Response Papers are required for each class’s reading assignments. These analyses should link the readings for the day and may be used for blog entries as well.  During class, I may ask you to present yours to the class, so prepare in advance to do so.  These response papers will collectively count for 20% of your grade.

Final Projects allow you to bring your creativity and knowledge to the issues of the course. Suggestions include a video interview, a proposed exhibit for the Museum of Sexuality, a mixed-media performance, or a visual arts archive depicting a theme we have covered in the course.

Final Essays should be 15 pages in length and should incorporate 8-10 sources from the required and recommended reading lists.  Additional outside sources may be used, but they do not replace this requirement.  Your Final Essay is due for our scheduled Final Exam period.  During that period, each student will present his or her argument to the class.

Grading

Grades will be based on the following percentages:

Class participation—25%
Response papers—25%
Final Project—25%
Final Essay—25%
   

SPRING 2009 CALENDAR
Jan. 29    Introduction to Class
Feb. 5    Foucault: Parts 1, 2, 3
 **Feb. 10**    Conversion Day—we meet Tuesday instead of Thursday
Foucault: Parts 4 and 5
Peiss: Chapter 3’s Documents 1 and 3 and essay by Godbeer
Feb. 19    I’m in Liverpool for this week.  For class, meet at the Museum of Sexuality.  Write a blog for the Course Website that reflects on the debate in Peiss: Preface, and Chapter 1’s essays by and Weeks and Norton

6:30 PM Documentary at Macaulay: “Very Young Girls”
  **Feb. 25
      Feb. 26    Watching Watching Film series:  “Sex, Lies, and Videotape”
Hawthorne: “The Custom-House” and Chapters 1-12
Peiss: Chapter 4’s Documents 2, 3, 4, and 5
Mar. 5    Hawthorne: Chapter 13 to end
Peiss: Chapter 4’s essay by Cott
Mar.12    Peiss: All of Chapters 6 and 7 and Chapter 9’s essay by Gordon
**Mar. 25
Mar. 19    Watching Watching Film Series: “Gattaca”
Nabokov
Peiss: Chapter 10’s Documents 1-4 and essay by Katz
Mar. 26    Nabokov
Peiss: Chapter 11’s Documents 1, 2, and 4 and essay
April 2    Morrison
Peiss: Chapter 5’s essay by Stevenson
April 9    Spring break
April 16    Spring break
April 23    Kushner, both plays
Peiss: Chapter 13’s Documents 3-6 and essay by Bayer and Chapter 14’s essay by Weston
April 30    Eugenides, Books 1 and 2
May 7    Eugenides, Books 3 and 4
Peiss: Chapter 11’s Document 3 and essay by Serlin
May 14    Presentation of Final Projects
Final Exam Period    Presentation of Final Essays
Appendix

From a list by Lewis Hyde, edited by Sue Lonoff, with thanks to Richard Marius's writing handbook.
The following remarks are intended to give you a sense of criteria for grading papers. Note that four topics recur: thesis, use of evidence, design (organization), and basic writing skills (grammar, mechanics, spelling).

The Unsatisfactory Paper.
The D or F paper either has no thesis or else it has one that is strikingly vague, broad, or uninteresting. There is little indication that the writer understands the material being presented. The paragraphs do not hold together; ideas do not develop from sentence to sentence. This paper usually repeats the same thoughts again and again, perhaps in slightly different language but often in the same words. The D or F paper is filled with mechanical faults, errors in grammar, and errors in spelling.
The C Paper.
The C paper has a thesis, but it is vague and broad, or else it is uninteresting or obvious. It does not advance an argument that anyone might care to debate. "Henry James wrote some interesting novels." "Modern cities are interesting places."
The thesis in the C paper often hangs on some personal opinion. If the writer is a recognized authority, such an expression of personal taste may be noteworthy, but writers gain authority not merely by expressing their tastes but by justifying them. Personal opinion is often the engine that drives an argument, but opinion by itself is never sufficient. It must be defended.
The C paper rarely uses evidence well; sometimes it does not use evidence at all. Even if it has a clear and interesting thesis, a paper with insufficient supporting evidence is a C paper.
The C paper often has mechanical faults, errors in grammar and spelling, but please note: a paper without such flaws may still be a C paper.
The B Paper.
The reader of a B paper knows exactly what the author wants to say. It is well organized, it presents a worthwhile and interesting idea, and the idea is supported by sound evidence presented in a neat and orderly way. Some of the sentences may not be elegant, but they are clear, and in them thought follows naturally on thought. The paragraphs may be unwieldy now and then, but they are organized around one main idea. The reader does not have to read a paragraph two or three times to get the thought that the writer is trying to convey.
The B paper is always mechanically correct. The spelling is good, and the punctuation is accurate. Above all, the paper makes sense throughout. It has a thesis that is limited and worth arguing. It does not contain unexpected digressions, and it ends by keeping the promise to argue and inform that the writer makes in the beginning.
The A Paper.
The A paper has all the good qualities of the B paper, but in addition it is lively, well paced, interesting, even exciting. The paper has style. Everything in it seems to fit the thesis exactly. It may have a proofreading error or two, or even a misspelled word, but the reader feels that these errors are the consequence of the normal accidents all good writers encounter. Reading the paper, we can feel a mind at work. We are convinced that the writer cares for his or her ideas, and about the language that carries them.
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