Literature and Sexuality

Catalog description

Introduction to French literature and critical theory in translation as a way of analyzing, imagining, and subverting divergent modes of sexuality. Literary texts and reflections, beginning with the Marquis de Sade – the French author whose work gave rise to the word “sadism” – reconstructing the variegated history of sexuality in relation to corporeality, gender, and desire. Examination of the limits and intersections of the humanities, anthropology, and biology. Readings from de Sade, Balzac, Sand, Proust, Colette, Pagnol, de Beauvoir, Genet, Duras, Wittig, Foucault, Cixous, Derrida, Khatibi, and Deleuze. We will also watch a range of films from the silent to the contemporary era. Taught in English.