Seminar In American Studies:
The Body, Sexuality, and Society
Nancy L. Struna
1106 Holzapfel Hall
Email, nlstruna@umd.edu
Office hours by appointment
Syllabus on the web: http://amst.umd.edu/People/Struna/AMST629Tspring07syllabus.htm
Course Description:
This seminar combines readings and individual, original research about the body, sex, sexualities, and identities in the context of the production of culture and social relations and in search for alternatives to the persisting materialist or constructivist binary in approaches to the body. We shall begin by some common readings that offer a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. I expect these readings to provoke thoughts and ideas and not to stand as representative either of what is an extensive literature or of possible research topics. Each seminar member will also contribute a couple of research articles or chapters that are informative about her/his research interests, so that we all understand and are able to assist in the construction of each other’s research project. All of us will engage with others in this intellectual community and complete a mature draft of an original piece of research suitable for a thesis/dissertation chapter, conference paper, or an article with the potential for publication.
Course Schedule:
Jan. 24 – Introduction(s)
Jan. 31 – Thinking About Bodies
Read:
Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 1-55.
Nancy N. Chen & Helene Moglen, eds., Bodies in the Making. Transgressions and Transformations (Santa Cruz, CA: New Pacific Press, 2006), pp. 28-44, 54-62.
Katie Conboy, Nadia Medina, & Sarah Stanbury, eds., Writing on the Body. Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 42-53, 80-88, 113-28, 233-46, 277-95, 309-17.
Cutting Edge, ed., Desire by Design. Body, Territories and New Technologies (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), pp. 21-73.
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vol 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley (1978; New York: Vintage Books, 1990), pp. 53-102.
Idem., Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison System, transl. Alan Sheridan (1977; New York: Vintage Books, 2nd ed., 1995), pp. 3-31, 195-228.
Judith Halberstam, In a Queer Time & Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (New York: New York University Press, 2005), pp. 1-21 97-124.
Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body. Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), pp. 3-21, 56-103.
Rosemarie Garland Thompson, Extraordinary Bodies. Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 55-80, 103-34.
Robyn Wiegman, American Anatomies. Theorizing Race and Gender (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), pp. 21-78.
Feb. 7 – Bodies & Sexual Identities in Late-Capitalist Society
Read:
Donald M. Lowe, The Body in Late-Capitalist USA (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995). OR
Rosemary Hennessy, Profit and Pleasure. Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism (New York: Routledge, 2000).
Feb. 14 – Bodies as Political Sites
Read:
Ronald L. Jackson, Scripting the Black Masculine Body. Identity,
Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media (Albany: SUNY Press,
2006). OR
Samantha King, Pink Ribbons, Inc. Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006).
Articles from seminar members
Feb. 21 – Discussion of initial research proposals
Feb. 28 – Bodies and Technologies
Read:
Sarah Chinn, Technology and the Logic of American Racism (New York: Continuum, 2000).
OR
John E. Campbell & Larry Gross, Getting It on Online. Cyberspace, Gay Male Sexuality, and Embodied Identity (Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2004).
Articles from seminar members
Mar. 7 – Bodies and Power
Read:
Helen Horowitz, Rereading Sex. Battles Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Vintage Books, 2000). OR
Eva Cherniakvsky, Incorporations. Race, Nation, and the Body Politics of Capital (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006).
Articles from seminar members
Mar. 14 – Student research
Mar. 21 – Semester break
Mar. 28 -- Student research
Progress reports by email
Apr. 4 – Student research
Apr. 11 – Student research
Progress reports by email
Apr. 18 – Student research
Apr. 25 -- Presentations & commentaries
May 2 – Presentations & commentaries
May. 9 – Presentations & commentaries
Course Requirements:
1. Weekly, insightful participation in the discussions (30% of course grade). Except for the first week, books are paired, and you will read only one. A part of the discussion on each book will focus on the argument(s) and approach(es) of each author so that students who have not read a given book can still understand it.
2. Provide a written and oral comment/critique of another student’s research project (10%).
3. Complete a “mature draft” of a potentially publishable scholarly article, conference paper, or a dissertation/thesis chapter (c. 25-35 pages, typed, double spaced, footnotes or endnotes; 60%).