Wendy Moffat W 1:30-4:15

EC 408 EC Conway

Hours: M 11:30-12:30, W, TH 4:30-5:30 Fall 2006

and by appointment

Ph: x1499; moffat@dickinson.edu

English 403: Sexuality and Modernism

Required Texts:

Bristow, Sexuality (Routledge)

Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford)

Forster, Howards End (Norton, ed. Armstrong)

--------- , Maurice (Norton)

Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I (Vintage)

Kaufman, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Vintage)

Lawrence, Women in Love (Penguin)

Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (Harcourt, ed. Hussey)

--------- , Orlando (Harvest, ed. diBattista)

--------- ,Three Guineas (Harcourt, ed. Marcus)

--------- , To The Lighthouse (ed. Hussey)

Recommended:

Bartlett, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr. Oscar Wilde (Serpent’s Tail)

Boone, Libidinal Currents (U Chicago P)

Butler, Gender Trouble (Routledge)

--------- , Undoing Gender (Routledge)

Course Objectives:

The concept of sexuality and the modernist movement developed simultaneously--some would argue causally--in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (in Europe and America.) This course places central literary texts from British modernism in the context of intellectual and social history, queer studies, and gender theory to explore the interrelation between sexuality and modernism, and the significance of their historical synchronicity. So much for "content."

As to method, the course is specifically devised as a link between English 220 and the 404 senior workshop. This is to say we will study, apply, and interrogate critical approaches, theoretical assumptions, and research methods very deliberately. I have never taught a seminar in which some student did not have lacunae in one of these areas; therefore, the working assumption of the class is that we don't know it all, and that critical inquiry of methods and assumptions will also be a legitimate "content" in its own right. The writing and oral assignments are thus designed to press and prepare you for the work of English 404.

Reading Schedule:

Aug. 30          Introduction: Syllabus Review; Review and Assessment of Theory and Your                                     Preparation

Part I: The Making of Sex

Sept.  6       Sexuality Now: Bristow,  Culler, Foucault, Laqueur (selections); Jeffrey Weeks "A never ceasing duel" in Sexuality and its Discontents(reserve)

Short papers #1 due, all students

            13        How They Spoke About Sex Then: Selections from Chris White's Nineteenth Century Writings on Homosexuality (reserve)

Part II: Female Impersonation

20        Woolf, To The Lighthouse; selections from Moments of Being; "Professions for Women" (reserve)

           27        Woolf, A Room of One's Own; Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (selections)

Group 1: short papers #2 due

Oct.     4          Forster, Howards End

Group 2: short papers #2 due

            11        Woolf, Three Guineas

NO CLASS Oct. 18-- I will be in Tulsa at MSA8. [Look it up on the web.]

Part III: "The Homosexual as a Species"--Same Sex Desire and Identity

25               Kaufman, Gross Indecency ; Sinfield,  The Wilde Century (selections)

Group 1: short papers #3 due

Nov.      1        Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (selections); Weeks, Coming Out (selections); George Chauncey,  "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion?:     Homosexual Identities and the Construction of Sexual Boundaries in the World War One Era" (reserves) Group 2: short papers #3 due

            8        Forster, Maurice; Queer Forster (selections); Robert Martin, "Edward Carpenter                                 and the Double Structure of Maurice" (reserve)

Annotated Bibliography Due [ungraded]

Nov.       15        Neil Bartlett, Who Was that Man? (selections)

Thanksgiving Break

Part IV: Modernism's Discourses of Sexuality

Nov. 29         Lawrence, Women in Love

Dec. 6           Woolf, Orlando; Woolf and Androgyny; Jane Marcus, selections; Joseph Boone, Libidinal Currents (selections)

Dec 12: 2 page 404 prospectus due to all in class, 5pm. [ungraded]

Research paper due: Saturday Dec. 16, 2pm.

Course Requirements:

Attendance and Active Participation, including short papers 40%

Research paper and annotated bibliography 60%

You must complete all writing assignments, both graded and ungraded, on their due date, to pass the course.

Short papers:

These papers have variable due dates, depending on your assigned group. Each student will write 3 short papers on assigned topics. Papers must be no more than 500 words-- (a devilish length)--and must be posted on the BB site for use as a resource for all students.

Annotated Bibliography:

Choose 20 sources from a variety of media (no more than 2 from the web) which you plan to CITE in your research paper. For each source, in a paragraph of 50-75 words, give:

1. A statement of the critic's argument, including thesis and a description of critical method

2. A summary of the evidence the critic uses to support the argument

3. A brief description of why the source is useful for your work

Be sure to make the sources engage with one another critically in a matrix of knowledge.

Research Paper:

An original piece of writing on a topic pertinent to the seminar, subject to advice and counsel by me. 8-12 pages. Papers should demonstrate a clear, effective critical approach, develop close readings of more than one text, engage a range of current criticism on your topic, and develop a critical voice. Note the modest length: I am favoring handsome writing and thoughtful conception over sheer bulk.

404 Prospectus:

No more than 500 word proposal of your 404 projects, with an appended works cited page. This will be the template for your preparatory work over the winter break. You are free to modify your plan: the first day of class in January a final prospectus will be due. Preliminary prospecti must be posted on BB; final prospecti are posted on the bulletin board on the 4^th floor of East College.