Prof. Jamie Sherman Phone: 609-558-5354 Office: RAB 310 Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 10-12 email: [email protected] Spring 2012 01:070:222 Mon/Thu 12:35-1:55 CDL 110 Sex and the Erotic in Global Context (draft syllabus: Nov 2011) Course Description How natural is sex? How “personal” are the contours of individual desire? What is the range of human “sexualities”? How have sex and the erotic changed over time, in this age of globalization? These are some of the questions that will guide our inquiry throughout the semester as we look at erotic practices and sexual politics in a range of societies both near and far from our own. In our investigation, we will focus primarily on dimensions of “otherness:” other times, other places, other people. Yet what sparks fly when then becomes now, or when here and there meet? Students signing up for this class should take into account that we will be discussing sensitive topics that may include same-sex, transgender, and polyamorous as well as heterosexual monogamous practices, rape, pornography, sex work and more. Course Objectives - to introduce students to anthropological and ethnographic modes of inquiry - to give students tools for thinking critically about sex as it varies across local and transnational contexts, and as it is linked to other cultural and social forces - to develop students’ proficiency in speaking and writing cogently about issues and questions of sex and the erotic as an array of social and cultural institutions and practices - to offer students strategies for analyzing media representations, including music, visual art, and films, as symbolic renderings of a particular ideology of sex and the erotic, located in space and time Course Assignments and Grading Midterm exam 20pts The midterm exam will be an open book essay based take-home exam. Final exam 30pts The final exam will be an open book essay based take-home exam. 5 Reading Responses 30pts Students will write 6 short responses to class readings. These responses should go beyond summary to critically analyze key connections between texts, and to place readings in the intellectual context of the course. Students may choose which weeks to submit these responses, but at least 4 responses must be completed by class 15. Participation 20pts Students in this course are expected to attend class, having done the readings, and to actively participate in class activities and discussions. Additional participation credit can also be earned through active posting and responding on the course website. Required Texts Chapkis, Wendy. Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. New York: Routledge, 1997. Curtis, Debra. Pleasures and Perils: Girls’ Sexuality in a Caribbean Consumer Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009. Maines, Rachel P. 1999. The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Padilla, Mark. Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007 Popenoe, Rebecca. Feeding Desire: Fatness and Beauty in the Sahara. New York: Routledge, 2003. Reddy, Gayatri. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Additional texts available through course website Course Outline I Introduction: Nature/Culture/Power Classes 1-2 Ortner, Sherry: "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" in Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. Zihlman, “Women as shapers of the human adaptation” Woman the gatherer. Frances Dahlberg, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. 75-120 II Historicizing “Sex” Classes 3-6 Maines, Rachel P. 1999. The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Abelove, Henry. “Some Speculations on the History of ‘Sexual Intercourse’ During the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’ in England” In Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life. Margaret Lock, Judith Farqhar, eds. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007 Butler, Judith. "Desire" in: Frank Lentricchia, Thomas McLaughlin (Editors). Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 369-386. III Other Sexes Classes 7-10 Film: Sex: Unknown, Nova, 2001 (60 min) Anne Fausto-Sterling, 1994 “The Five Sexes: Why Males and Females are not Enough.” The Sciences 33(2): 20-25 and “The Five Sexes Revisited.” The Sciences, July/June 2000. Reddy, Gayatri. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. IV Other Erotics Classes 11-14 Popenoe, Rebecca. Feeding Desire: Fatness and Beauty in the Sahara. New York: Routledge, 2003. Class 15 Film: Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She. Antony Thomas, 2005 Midterm exam due back V Sex and the West: Orientalisms and Occidentalisms Classes 16-17 Film: India Cabaret. Mira Nair 1985 Zizek, Slavoj. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture. Boston: MIT Press, 1991. Chapter TBD (possibly 6?) Kang, L. Hyun–Yi “The Desiring of Asian Female Bodies: Interracial Romance and Cinematic Subjection” Visual Anthropology Review 9(1) March 1993, 5-21 Schein, Louisa. “The Consumption of Color and the Politics of White Skin in Post-Mao China” In The Gender and Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy. Roger Lancaster, Micaela di Leonardo, eds. New York: Routledge,1997 VI The Sexual Politics of Erotic “Outsourcing” Class 18-23 Film: Cowboys In Paradise Amit Virmani, 2010 Suryakusuma, Julia “The State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia” In Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia. Laurie Jo Sears, ed. Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1999, 270-294 Oetomo, Dédé. “Gender and Sexual Orientation in Indonesia” In Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia. Laurie Jo Sears, ed. Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1999, 259-269 Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. “Alien romance” In Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia. Laurie Jo Sears, ed. Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1999, 295-318 Curttis, Debra. Pleasures and Perils: Girls’ Sexuality in a Caribbean Consumer Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009. VII Sex Trade Class 24-28 Film: In the Name of Love Shannon O’Rourke. 2002, 58 mins Chapkis, Wendy. Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. New York: Routledge, 1997. Padilla, Mark. Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007, Selections TBD .