Frann Michel
Eaton 204, x6389
fmichel@willamette.edu
MWF 10:20-11:20, F 2-4, and other times by appointment

texts

schedule

writing assignments

links

This course examines the cultural construction of gender and sexuality, particularly in the twentieth century, through study of selected theoretical and literary texts. In many of the literary texts we will explore, gender is called into question or problematized through representation of transvestism (cross-dressing), gender inversion (homosexuality), or gender transformation. We will look at how theoretical and literary texts construct the relations among gender, sexuality, and identity, and how they place gender and sexuality in relation to other aspects of public and private life, including race. We will examine such notions as the "normal," the "natural," and the "deviant" or "perverse." We will consider the relation between social vision and literary form.

Your participation is vital to this course. I will expect you to come to each class having read the assigned material, having thought about it, and having questions or ideas about it. For each class, you will write down a discussion question. In addition to writing daily discussion questions and participating actively in class, students will write four essays. Three of these will be brief response papers addressing individual texts; one will be a final essay analyzing a relationship between a literary and a theoretical text, on at least one of which you have not previously written a response paper. See below for more information.

Final grades will be determined as follows:
response papers 10 % each (30 % total)
final paper 30%
discussion questions 20%
partticipation 20%

Required texts available at WU Bookstore:
Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I: An Introduction
Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Hall, The Well of Loneliness
Hwang, M. Butterfly
Kessler & McKenna, Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach
Woolf, Orlando

Required texts online or on reserve:
Davis, "Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist"
Ellis, selections from Studies in the Psychology of Sex
Gamez, "From the Gloria Stories"
Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"
Rubin, "The Traffic in Women"; "Thinking Sex"
Sedgwick, "What Isn't Gender"
Wright, "Man of All Work"

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Tentative Schedule

M Jan 16 Introductions
W Jan 18 Sedgwick, "What Isn't Gender"
F Jan 20 Gamez, "From the Gloria Stories"

M Jan 23 Kessler & McKenna, Gender, Chapters 1 & 2; response papers on Sedgwick and Gamez due
W Jan 25 Gender, 3 & 4
F Jan 27 Gender, 5 & 6

M Jan 30 Hwang, M. Butterfly (focus on Act 1)
W Feb 1 M Butterfly
F Feb 3 Davis, "Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist"; response paper on Kessler & McKenna due

M Feb 6 Wright, "Man of All Work"; response papers on Hwang and Davis due
W Feb 8 Ellis, Selections
F Feb 10 Hall, Well, Book I

M Feb 13 Well, Book II; response papers on Wright and Ellis due
W Feb 15 Well, Book III
F Feb 17 Well, Book IV

M Feb 20 Well, Book V
W Feb 22 Rubin, "The Traffic in Women"
F Feb 24 Freud, I: "The Sexual Aberrations"

M Feb 27 Freud, II: "Infantile Sexuality"; response papers on Hall and Rubin due
W Mar 1 Freud, III: "The Transformations of Puberty"
F Mar 3 Freud, "Summary"

M Mar 6 Woolf, Orlando, Chapter 1; response papers on Freud due
W Mar 8 Orlando, Chapter 2
F Mar 10 Orlando, Chapter 3

M Mar 13 Orlando, Chapter 4
W Mar 15 Orlando, Chapter 5
F Mar 17 Orlando, Chapter 6

M Mar 20 Foucault, Part One, "We 'Other Victorians'"; response papers on Woolf due
W Mar 22 Foucault, Part Two, "The Repressive Hypothesis"
F Mar 24 Foucault, Part Three, "Scientia Sexualis"

M Mar 27-F Mar 31 Spring Vacation

M Apr 3 Foucault, Part Four, "The Deployment of Sexuality," Chapters 1& 2: "Objective" and "Method"
W Apr 5 Part Four, Chapters 3 & 4, "Domain" and "Periodization"
F Apr 7 Part Five, "Right of Death and Power Over Life"

M Apr 10 Continued discussion
W Apr 12 Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Part One, Chapters 1-2
F Apr 14 Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Chapter 3

M Apr 17 Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Part Two, Chapters 1-3; response papers on Foucault due
W Apr 19 SSRD: no class meeting
F Apr 21 Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Chapters 4-5

M Apr 24 Continued discussion
W Apr 26 Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"
F Apr 28 Rubin, "Thinking Sex"

M May 1 Sedgwick, "What Isn't Gender"; Response papers on Baldwin, Rich, Rubin due

Sat May 6 11am Response paper on Sedgwick due; Final essay due, Eaton 204

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Writing Assignments

Response Papers

Students will be responsible for writing three brief response papers of 3-5 pages (750-1250 words) each, addressing individual texts. At least one response paper must be based on a theoretical text, and at least one on a literary text. Response papers are due on the Monday following the last day of scheduled discussion of the work addressed in the paper. Response papers may address any aspect of the text they respond to; they may extend or critique a theoretical point, or analyze a literary structure (e.g., image, metaphor, parallels, setting, narrative stance). Response papers may be based on discussion questions.

Final Essay

In addition to the three response papers, students will write a final essay of 10-12 pages (2500-3000 words) analyzing a relationship between a literary and a theoretical text, on at least one of which you have not previously written a response paper.

Of the four or five works on which you write papers this term, at least one of the literary texts must be a book-length work (Hwang, Hall, Woolf, Baldwin) and at least one of the theoretical texts must be a book-length work (Kessler & McKenna, Freud, Foucault)

Final essays are due on or before Saturday, May 6, 11am.

Discussion Questions

For each class meeting, you will be asked to write down a discussion question. Discussion questions have multiple aims: they should demonstrate to me that you are doing the reading (so we don't need exams or quizzes), and they should provide you with an opportunity to reflect upon the assignment.

A discussion question is one that cannot be answered simply by looking the answer up somewhere, one that does not have an obvious answer, but that must be explored and argued. It is not completely open-ended, but specifically grounded in the text. It arises from careful consideration of the reading assignment: what the text says, and how it says it. In about half a page (150 words), explain what prompted the question, what thinking went into arriving at the question, what possible answers (if any) have been considered, and why those answers are unsatisfactory. Try to frame the question itself in one brief interrogative sentence.

Discussion questions must be typed, and will not be accepted late.

Discussion groups will have about four members; membership will rotate. Group process will be as follows:

1. Group members sit in a circle.

2. Each group member in turn shares her or his question. Those listening may wish to take notes.

3. When each question has been presented, group members begin responding to the questions that have been presented. This may entail brainstorming, finding and examining relevant passages in the text.

4. Discussion continues on whichever questions seem most fruitful; that is, whichever group members have the most to say about or disagree most about.

5. The group decides on one question to share with the rest of the class.

6. The group decides on a speaker for the group. The role of speaker should rotate.

7. The speaker will report the question and summarize the gist of the group's discussion of it.

Some Links of Interest: authors and texts
see below for links on research and writing

Adrienne Rich
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/rich.htm

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Kosofsky_Sedgwick

David Henry Hwang
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/authors_depth/hwang.htm

Angela Davis
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/davis_angela_yvonne.html

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id91/pg1/

Richard Wright
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/wright_richard/

Havelock Ellis
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/havelock.htm

http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/ffellis.htm

Gayle Rubin
study questions for "The Traffic in Women"
http://www.mit.edu/~shaslang/IntroWS/rubinhwk.html

notes on "The Traffic in Women"
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/boards/owl/f03-5538/messages/39.html

http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/class/632/97s/rept/970414.scheuble.html

notes on "Thinking Sex"
http://transmet.org/~aj/words/gay_and_lesbian_class/thinking_sex.htm

Sigmund Freud
http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/fffreud.htm

3 essays
http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/factfiles/ff1905.htm

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/freud02a.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/ex/79.html

Virginia Woolf, Orlando
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/orlando.html

http://www.tetterton.net/orlando/orlando95_talk.html

Michel Foucault
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-fouc.htm

James Baldwin
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/baldwin.htm

see especially the article at
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n2_v32/ai_21059954

Hatfield Library

MLA Bibliography

Voice of the Shuttle: Literary, critical, theoretical links

VoS has a Gender and Sexuality Studies page

Queer Theory briefly explained (scroll down)

WU Writing Center

On Writing about Literature

Getting an A on an English paper

Online Writing Resouces

The Elements of Style

Brief MLA Style Guide

On Plagiarism and how to avoid it

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