106-020 Reading Sexuality

50 points of first year arts including at least 25 points from a specified list of subject areas, see Prerequisites, or first year gender studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject explores categories of sexuality as historically and culturally contingent rather than as natural expressions of a private self. It provides the historical and theoretical frameworks for understanding the rise of specific sexualities in relation to available medical, psychoanalytic, philosophical and popular discourses. Drawing on recent formations in lesbian and gay studies, this subject reads a diverse range of cultural texts from the proceedings of court cases to personal advertisements, from celebrity gossip columns to popular film, to argue that sexuality is a central, if incoherent, aspect of contemporary everyday life. By the end of the semester students should be able to explicate the complex imbrications of sexuality and other categories of identity such as gender and race and be able to analyse the representation of sexual identities and desires in key literary and cinematic texts.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader will be available.

• M Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: The Will to Knowledge. Penguin.
• O Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin.
• Film: W Wyler, The Children's Hour.