CLC 1023 (formerly 023)
Sex and Culture
Course Guidebook 2008-2009
Course Director: Professor James Miller
jmiller@uwo.ca
Adjunct Co-ordinator: Professor Kelly Olson
kolson2@uwo.ca
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Course Description
The overarching theme for CLC 1023 is "Sex and the Cities." Organized
as a tour of the erotic capitals of the world, with stopovers in the major cities
that have contributed to humanity's cumulative understanding of sex, the course
is designed to introduce students to the great classics of erotic literature
along with the most influential philosophical and theological interpretations
of the meaning of sexual experience.
As the title of the popular television series Sex and the City suggests, sex
is as "natural" as the impulse to buy overpriced designer high heels.
Despite Broadway's quaint insistence on "doin' what comes natcherly,"
sex turns out to be a highly cultural activity. The history of its definitions,
constructions, and representations has been deeply connected since the dawn
of civilization with the complex development of urban cultures around the world.
There were sexual acts before the invention of the City, no doubt, but the invention of Sex itself – as a system of rules, a set of identities, a philosophy of life, a site of religious contestation, an archive of transgressive knowledge – enters into history with the emergence of the earliest city-dwellers, the ancient ancestors of Carrie Bradshaw and her urbane circle of friends. Even the pastoral myth that "pure" sex can only happen in the "untamed" natural world beyond the city limits (a myth Carrie entertains when she visits Aidan's rustic cottage for a steamy weekend away from New York) is a very urban fantasy traceable back to the ancient cities of Athens, Alexandria, and Rome.
The peculiarities of the sexual culture of each city on the tour will be considered in relation to readings and images reflecting its erotic character. Ancient Athenian attitudes towards sex between men, for instance, will provide a context for reading the speeches in the Symposium, Plato's great dialogue on Eros. And Hollywood's normalizing construction of heterosexual relations in the Cold War Era will be considered in relation to Liz Taylor's "scandalous" portrayal of Cleopatra.
The course also focuses on the erotic icons or sexual personae associated with each city. In Babylon the figure of the Whore will be highlighted; in Athens, the Platonic Lover; in Rome, the Virgin; in Carthage, the Love Martyr; in Camelot, the Chivalric Lover; in Florence, the Graces. While the first term visits erotic cities in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, the second term takes us into the modern period with visits to London, Paris, Vienna, Venice, Hollywood, and New York. Representations of erotic icons will be drawn from literature, painting, sculpture, ballet, film, and television.
CLC 1023 is an introductory course for the minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture (GSC) which was launched in the fall of 2004.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Aims of the Course
1. To study diverse representations of the erotic life in literature, music, art, and performance from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the Present Day.
2. To explore the traditions of erotic representation in relation to major philosophical and theological understandings of sexual desire, activity, experience, and identity.
3. To examine the urban contexts and social conditions in which powerful myths
about sex and sexuality have emerged in association with sexual character types
or "erotic icons."
4. To consider the cultural operation of erotic icons as specific cues to the
formation of prevailing sexual scripts and identities, or as general guides
to the charting of personal sexual histories and destinies.
5. To dispel the notion that sex is purely "natural" (and always
has been) by demonstrating how creatively and compellingly our ancestors have
been constructing it for us since the dawn of civilization.
6. To illustrate various methodological approaches to the cultural analysis
of eroticism in the emergent field of sexuality studies.
7. To provide a starting-point and an intellectual foundation for the minor program in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Professor James Miller: 2008-2009
Schedule of Topics for Lectures and Breakout Groups
*FALL TERM*______________________________________________________________________________CONCEPTUAL
FOUNDATIONS
*Week 1: Erotic Iconography/ Iconology
Fri Sept 5 – Taboo and Transgression
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
*Week 2: Erotic Icons –> The Earth Mother
[Magna Mater], The Sky Father [Iovis Pater]
Mon Sept 8 – Terms and Tropes
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Wed Sept 10 – Icons and Personas
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Fri Sept 12 – Spaces and Acts
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
______________________________________________________________________________
URUK / BABYLON
*Week 3: Erotic Icons –> The Great Whore, The Wild Man, The Fertile King
Mon Sept 15 – The Wild Man and the Whore
READ: Gilgamesh Tablet I (in coursepack)
Wed Sept 17 – The Wild Man and the King
READ Gilgamesh Tablet II (in coursepack)
Fri Sept 19 – The Goddess and the Bull
READ: Gilgamesh Tablet VI (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
TROY
*Week 4: Erotic Icons –> The Beauty Queen, The Femme Fatale, The Lesbian Warrior
Mon Sept 22 – The Cult of Aphrodite: Guest Lecture
by Professor Olson
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Wed Sept 24 – Helen of Troy [Guest Lecture by Professor
Olson]
READ: Homer, Iliad Book III (in coursepack)
Fri Sept 26 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Advice on Assignments
+ Hymn to Aphrodite
READ: Sappho, Fragment 1: "Hymn to Aphrodite" (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
THEBES
*Week 5: Erotic Icons –> The Maenad, The Satyr, The Tragic Androgyne
Mon Sept 29 – The Sex Life of Satyrs [guest lecture
by Professor Olson]
READ: everything in Thebes section (in coursepack)
–> Assignment #1: Official Due Date (for written comments)
Wed Oct 1 – Erotomachia
READ: Euripides, The Bacchae (paperback): focus on opening scenes
Fri Oct 3 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Tragic Androgyny
READ: Euripides, The Bacchae (paperback): focus on final scenes
______________________________________________________________________________
ATHENS
*Week 6: Erotic Icons –> The Erastes, The Eromenos
Mon Oct 6 – Greek Heterosexuality: Guest Lecture
by Professor Olson
READ: everything in Athens section (in coursepack)
Wed Oct 8 – Greek Homosexuality: Guest Lecture
by Professor Olson
READ: everything in Athens section (in coursepack)
Fri Oct 10 – Phaedrus: Praising Eros
READ: Phaedrus's speech, Plato's Symposium (paperback)
*Week 7: Erotic Icons –> The Gay Warrior, The Love Doctor
Mon Oct 13 – Thanksgiving Holiday: No Classes.
NB –> because of the holiday,
the extended due date for Assignment #3 is Wed Oct 15.
Wed Oct 15 – Pausanias: Dividing Eros
READ: Pausanias's speech, Plato, Symposium (paperback)
–> Assignment #1: Extended Due Date (no written comments)
Fri Oct 17 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Eryximachus: Diagnosing
Eros
READ: Eryximachus's speech, Plato's Symposium (paperback)
*Week 8: Erotic Icons –> The Comic Androgyne, The Gay Aesthete, The Platonic Lover
Mon Oct 20 – Aristophanes: Mythologizing Eros
READ: Aristophanes's speech, Plato's Symposium (paperback)
Wed Oct 22 – Agathon: Ritualizing Eros
READ: Agathon's speech, Plato's Symposium (paperback)
Fri Oct 24 – Socrates: Intellectualizing Eros
READ: Socrates/Diotima's speeches, Plato's Symposium (paperback)
______________________________________________________________________________
ALEXANDRIA
*Week 9: Erotic Icon –> The Phallic Woman
Mon Oct 27 – The Cult of Isis: Guest Lecture by
Professor Olson
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Wed Oct 29 – The Historical Cleopatra: Guest Lecture
by Professor Olson
READ: Plutarch, Mark Antony (in coursepack)
Fri Oct 31 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Rome Reacts to Cleopatra
READ: Horace, "Nunc est bibendum" (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
ROME
*Week 10: Erotic Icons –> The Ovidian Lover, The Virgin Metamorphosed
Mon Nov 3 – Roman Sexuality: Guest Lecture by Professor
Olson
READ: everything in Rome section (in coursepack) except Ovid
Wed Nov 5 – Ars Amatoria: Ovidian Allegories of
Sex
READ: Ovid, Art of Love Book 1, Rome section (in coursepack)
Fri Nov 7 – Amorous Transformations
READ: Ovid, Myths of Flora and Callisto, Rome section (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
CARTHAGE
*Week 11: Erotic Icons –> The Love Martyr
Mon Nov 10 – Sex and History: Dido's Ancient Flame
READ: Virgil, Aeneid IV, Carthage Section (in coursepack)
Wed Nov 12 – Augustinian Love Theory
READ: Augustine, Confessions 2, Carthage section (in coursepack)
Fri Nov 14 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Augustine's Sex Education
READ: Augustine, Confessions 3, 4, Carthage section 9 (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
CAMELOT
*Week 12: Erotic Icon –> The Chivalric Lover
Mon Nov 17 – Love Worship: The Galehaut Incident
READ: excerpt from Lancelot-Graal, Camelot section (in coursepack)
–> Assignment #2: Official Due Date (for written comments)
Wed Nov 19 – The Dance of Love: Guillaume de Lorris
READ: Romance of the Rose I, Camelot section (in coursepack)
Fri Nov 21 – Medieval Sex Advice: Jean de Meun
READ: Romance of the Rose II, Camelot section (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________CITY
OF DIS
*Week 13: Erotic Icons –> The Sexual Damned (1): The Lustful
Mon Nov 24 – MIDTERM TEST (in lecture room)
Wed Nov 26 – Infernal Orgasm: Paolo and Francesca
READ: Dante, Inferno 5, Dis section (in coursepack)
Fri Nov 28 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Discussion of Inferno
5
READ: Dante, Inferno 5, Dis section (in coursepack)
*Week 14: Erotic Icons –> The Sexual Damned (2): The Sodomite, The Vaginal Man
Mon Dec 1 – Infernal Outing: Brunetto and the Sodomites
READ: Dante, Inferno 15-16, Dis section (in coursepack)
–> Assignment #2: Extended Due Date (no written comments)
Wed Dec 3 – Infernal Invagination: Mohammed
READ: Dante, Inferno 28, Dis section (in coursepack)
*WINTER TERM*
______________________________________________________________________________
FLORENCE
*Week 15: Erotic Icons –> The Neoplatonic Lover, The Graces, The Mars-Venus Couple
Mon Jan 5 – The Rebirth of Venus
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Wed Jan 7 – The Dance of the Graces
READ: Edgar Wind, "Botticelli's Primavera" (in coursepack)
Fri Jan 9 – The Taming of Mars
READ: everything in Florence section (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
SIENA
*Week 16: Erotic Icon –> The Big Prick (Cazzone)
Mon Jan 12 – The Virgin's City
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
Wed Jan 14 – The Book of the Prick
READ: Excerpts from Vignali, La Cazzaria (in coursepack)
Fri Jan 16 – The Invention of Sexual Politics
READ: Excerpts from Vignali, La Cazzaria (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
LONDON
*Week 17: Erotic Icons –> The Love Triangle: The Bisexual Love-Slave,
The Ironic Androgyne,
The Dark Lady (Dominatrix)
Mon Jan 19 – Master-Mistress of My Passion
READ: Shakespeare, Sonnets (selections in coursepack)
Wed Jan 21 – The Barge Speech
READ: Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: Barge Speech (in coursepack)
Fri Jan 23 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Fire and Air
READ: Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: Death of Cleopatra (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
FORBIDDEN CITY
*Week 18: Erotic Icons –> The Yin-Yang Couple, The Eunuch, The Concubine
Mon Jan 26 – The Sexuality of Eunuchs
READ: Wood , "Officials and Eunuchs," and Pu Yi, "Eunuchs"
(in coursepack)
Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: Cleopatra and the Eunuch (in coursepack)
–> Assignment #3: Official Due Date (for written comments)
Wed Jan 28 – Yin and Yang: Chinese Eroticism
READ: Cail, "The Forbidden City" (in coursepack)
Fri Jan 30 – The Concubine as Femme Fatale
READ: short story "The Calamitous Golden Eel" (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
PARIS
*Week 19: Erotic Icons –> The Male and Female Libertine, The Ingenue, The Sadean Lover
Mon Feb 2 – Sex and Death: Sade's Dream of Laura
READ: Sade, Cartoon / Prologue: Philosophy in the Bedroom (in coursepack)
Wed Feb 4 – Libertine Philosophy I: Sadean Men
READ: Sade, Excerpt 1 and 2: Philosophy in the Bedroom (in coursepack)
Fri Feb 6 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Libertine Philosophy
II: Sadean Women
READ: Sade, Excerpts 1,2, and 3: Philosophy in the Bedroom (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
ST. PETERSBURG
*Week 20: Erotic Icon –> The Romantic Lover
Mon Feb 9 – Romantic Metamorphoses
NO ASSIGNED READINGS
–> Assignment #3: Extended Due Date (no written comments)
Wed Feb 11 – Swan Lake I: Traditional Version
READ: Peter Stoneley "Swans"
VIEW: Video of Russian production of Swan Lake (excerpts shown in class)
Fri Feb 13 – Swan Lake II: Queer Version
READ: Peter Stoneley,"Swans"
VIEW: Video of Matthew Bourne's production of Swan Lake
(excerpts will be shown in class)
______________________________________________________________________________
*Week 21: Conference Week
Mon Feb 16 – no class [Family Day]
Wed Feb 18 – no class
Fri Feb 20 – no class
______________________________________________________________________________
VIENNA
*Week 22: Erotic Icons –> The Female Hysteric, The Neurotic Lover
Mon Feb 23 – Freud and Sade
READ: Morton, Nervous Splendor; Freud, "Katharina" (in coursepack)
Wed Feb 25 – Invitation to an Orgy
READ: Arthur Schnitzler's novella Dream Story (paperback)
Fri Feb 27 –BREAKOUT GROUPS: Schnitzler and Kubrick
READ: Schnitzler, Dream Story (pbk); VIEW: Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut (video)
______________________________________________________________________________
HOLLYWOOD
*Week 23: Erotic Icon –> The Screen Idol
Mon Mar 2 – Celluloid Cleo: Guest Lecture by Professor
Olson
READ: Hallett, "Cleopatra Winks" (in coursepack)
Wed Mar 4 – The Cult of Liz
READ: "Idol Worship," Paglia, "Liz Taylor" (in coursepack)
Fri Mar 6 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Cleo Drag: Hosanna
READ: Tremblay's play Hosanna (paperback); Pigeon's essay (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
BOMBAY/ BOLLYWOOD
*Week 24: Erotic Icons –> The Romantic Androgyne, The Transgressive Lover
Mon Mar 9 – Bataillean Erotics: The Dance of Shiva
READ: Georges Bataille, excerpts from L'Erotisme
James Miller, The Dance of Shiva (excerpt from Measures of Wisdom)
Wed Mar 11 – Mother India: Sex and Death in Bollywood
VIEW: video of Mother India (excerpts will be shown in class)
Fri Mar 13 – Raj Rao's Bombay
READ: Raj Rao, "Gentlemen" (chapter one of The Boyfriend)
______________________________________________
NEW YORK
*Week 25: Erotic Icons –> The Gold Digger, The Single Girl
Mon Mar 16 – Foucaultian Erotics
READ: Foucault, Histoire excerpts in New York section (in coursepack)
–> Assignment #4: Official Due Date (for written comments)
Wed Mar 18 – Carrie and the Three Graces
READ: Brown, "How to be Sexy"; VIEW: any episode of Sex and the City
Fri Mar 20 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: Catching Mr. Big
VIEW: The movie of Sex and the City
______________________________________________________________________________
AMSTERDAM
*Week 26: Erotic Icons –> The Dandy, The Metrosexual
Mon Mar 23 – Butlerian Erotics: Performing Gender
READ: Butler, Gender Trouble, excerpt in Amsterdam section (in coursepack)
Wed Mar 25 – Dandy's Inferno
READ: Simon Horsley, excerpt in Amsterdam section (in coursepack)
Fri Mar 27 – Red Light District
READ: Simon Horsley, excerpt in Amsterdam section (in coursepack)
______________________________________________________________________________
INTERNET
*Week 27: Erotic Icon –> The Cybersexual
Mon Mar 30 – Virtual Identities
VIEW: Queer as Folk Episode Season One, #9
–> Assignment #4: Extended Deadline (no written comments)
Wed Apr 1 – Cybersex
READ: Fisher essay "Internet Pornography" (in coursepack)
Fri Apr 3 – BREAKOUT GROUPS: strategies for studying for the final exam
*Week 28: Erotic Icon –> The Beauty King
Mon Apr 6 – Back to Babylon
VIEW: Queer as Folk Episode Season One #20
Wed Apr 8 – Informal Q & A Session with Professor Miller: Tips for the Final Exam
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
How to Read for "Sex and Culture"
Since we'll be covering a lot of ground in this course – both literally (from Babylon to the Internet) and figuratively (from medieval love allegory to Hollywood sex symbols) – here's some advice on how to get the most out of your readings for CLC 1023.
Don't be intimidated by the schedule of readings and lecture topics. Most of the assigned readings are brief excerpts contained within the CLC 1023 Coursepack.
Prioritize your readings. Allow yourself enough time to read the longer and more important works assigned for each term (e.g. Plato's Symposium in the first term, Sade's Philosophy in the Bedroom in the second term).
Read cumulatively. The course has been organized so that readings in the first term connect with readings in the second term (e.g. the readings on Cleopatra). In other words, readings early in the course will prepare you for readings later in the course.
Follow the specific reading instructions under each date in the Schedule of Topics for Lectures and Breakout Groups. The instruction "READ" ideally means "have the assigned works read before the lecture." Similarly, "VIEW" ideally means "make sure you've watched the film before the lecture." Though some short works will be read aloud in class, and some clips from the films will be screened during lecture, you are responsible for going over the day's readings and/or viewings in advance.
Bring the CLC 1023 Coursepack with you to each lecture. Since we'll often refer during lectures to specific passages or images contained in the coursepack, you'll be lost unless you can follow the text with the rest of the class.
Try not to fall behind in your readings. We'll be going at a heady speed through the diverse erotic cultures of over twenty cities spanning five millennia – which means that you'll definitely need to pace yourself! Some works will be a quick entertaining read (like Hollywood article on Idol Worship) while others (like Plato's Symposium) will require more thought-time and cannot be easily skimmed.
Allow yourself extra time to read the philosophical works. Since the course is designed to introduce you to several major philosophies of the erotic life, you should resist the temptation to skim Plato, Augustine, Sade, Freud, Bataille, Foucault, Butler. Their writings are intellectually challenging, it's true, but the pay-off for close attention to them is great. You may be sure that questions on their philosophical notions of love, sex, sexuality, and gender relations will turn up on the final examination.
Don't hesitate to consult the professors or the teaching assistants if any reading on the schedule confuses, perturbs, or exasperates you. We're here to guide your readings and to help clear up any confusions that might arise from new terminologies or unfamiliar lines of argument.
Have fun by reading beyond the course syllabus to the cultural world around you. For instance, many of the older erotic icons turn up in new guises in television shows, rock lyrics, popular films, pulp novels, and even in your readings for other courses. Maenads can be seen dancing on Much Music, and Satyrs lurk in Science Fiction. Dark Ladies appear sooner or later on every soap opera, and Libertines lurk at the Ceeps.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Required Reading
The following titles are available in the UWO Bookstore.
1 Euripides, Bacchae and Other Plays (Penguin Paperback)
2. Plato, Symposium (Penguin Paperback)
3. Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story (Penguin Paperback)
4. Michel Tremblay, Hosanna (General Publishing)
5. Sex and the Cities: Babylon to the Internet (Coursepack)
Required Viewing
The works listed below can be viewed in the Film Resources and Archives Room in the basement of University College (UC1).
First Term
Music Video
We're Talking Vulva. dir. Dempsey (1990)
Second Term
Ballet
Swan Lake ["classical version"] by Tchaikovsky. Kirov Ballet. [video]
Swan Lake ["queer version"] choreographed by Matthew Bourne [video]
Films
Mother India. dir. Mehboob. (1957)
Cleopatra. dir. Mankiewicz (1963).
Eyes Wide Shut. dir. Kubrick (1999)
Sex and the City, dir. King (2008)
Television
Sex and the City [TV series: any episode]. HBO. 1999/2000.
Queer as Folk [American version: Season One #9, #20]. Showtime. 2000/2001
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Grade Breakdown
Graded Work Marks Notes
Breakout Group
Attendance 10 1 mark per class attended for any 10 of the 12
classes scheduled for Breakout Groups
Engagement 10 Level of participation in group discussions and intellectual progress
through the course, as judged by your Breakout Group leader (TA)
in consultation with Professor Miller
Assignment #1 10 See "Lay Down Your Tracks" instructions
Assignment #2 10 See "Come Together" instructions
Assignment #3 10 See "Over the Borderline" instructions
Assignment #4 10 See "Everything Old is New Again" instructions
Midterm Test 10 25 brief quiz questions (not multiple choice):
half a mark per answer for the best 20 answers
Final Examination
Part One 10 "Terms and Tropes"
Part Two 10 "Models and Propositions"
Part Three 10 "Icons and Myths"
_________
100
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignments: Submission Policy
1. Each student in CLC023 must complete FOUR short written assignments for
the course, which may be submitted either to Professor Miller (on due dates
at the start of lecture) or to the members of the TA Team (outside of lecture
or at breakout group meetings). Assignments can also be placed in the Modern
Languages Drop-Off Box (see below).
2. An assignment handed in on its Official Due Date (see schedule of due dates)
will receive an appropriate grade plus written comments.
3. If for any reason you're unable to submit your work on the Official Due Date, you are automatically granted an extension of TWO WEEKS in which to complete the assignment. You do not have to ask for this extension and no marks will be deducted from your work if you opt for it. Assignments handed in on the Extended Due Date (see schedule of due dates) will receive an appropriate grade but no written comments.
4. Overdue assignments will be not be accepted after their Extended Due Date unless the circumstances are extraordinary: e.g. medical crisis, UFO abduction. A doctor's note must be affixed to any assignment submitted after the Extended Due Date because of medical problems.
5. All assignments must be submitted in hard copy (as printouts on paper). Do not submit assignments electronically as files attached to emails, unless the circumstances are extraordinary and prior permission has been granted by Professor Miller or your TA.
6. You are responsible for ensuring that the pages of your assignments stay together in the right order. Number each page. Do not expect Professor Miller or the TA Team to supply you with staples or paperclips.
THE DROP-OFF BOX
LOCATION: Beside the door of the Departmental Office for the Department of Modern
Languages and Literatures (Room 115, University College).
PROCEDURE: Assignments dropped off at this location will be stamped with the
date of submission by the departmental secretary and placed in Professor Miller's
mailbox or the mailbox of your TA.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignments: Schedule of Due Dates
Assignment Title Official Due Date Extended Due Date
(For Written Comments) (No Written Comments)
1. Lay Down Your Tracks Mon, Sept 29 *Wed., Oct. 15
2. Come Together Mon, Nov. 17 Mon., Dec. 1
3. Over the Borderline Mon., Jan. 26 Mon., Feb. 9
4. Everything Old is New Again Mon., Mar. 16 Mon., Mar. 30
Notes
* Due dates normally fall on a Monday. The only exception is the extended due
date for Assignment #1, which falls on a Wednesday (Oct. 15) because of the
Thanksgiving holiday.
The extended due date for each assignment is normally two Mondays after its
official due date. The only exception is the extended due date for Assignment
#1.
To help keep you on track with your assignments, the schedule of due dates has been embedded in the long Schedule of Topics for Lectures and Breakout Groups.
Impending deadlines for assignments will be routinely announced at the start of lectures.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignments: Standard Format
Title PageInclude the following information on the title page:
(1) title of assignment; (2) your name; (3) your student number; (4) date of
submission; (5) your TA's name; (6) course number [CLC 1023]
Staple or clip your assignment together in upper left corner
1 Use standard letter-size paper throughout your assignment.
Number each of the five pages of your text (i.e. the body of your argument)
–> numeral only, upper right corner
2 Compose your assignment in clear expository English prose.
Use complete sentences.
Check your spelling and grammar carefully.
3 Use 12-point lettering throughout your text. Preferred font: Times New Roman
(avoid fancy fonts).
23 lines of text per page, double-spaced.
4 Divide the body of your text into appropriate paragraphs.
Avoid long unbroken blocks of text that go on for a page or more.
Quotations must be appropriately marked.
5 Footnote all direct quotations from other authors' works (if any)
and all paraphrases or rewordings of other authors' arguments (if any), including
borrowings from Professor Miller's lecture notes.
Place footnotes at the end of your text (p. 5) rather than at the bottom of
each page.
Works Cited
Follow the citation formats in the MLA style guidelines (available online) for
footnotes and bibliography.
A Works Cited page must be included at the end of each assignment. See "Assignments:
Works Cited Policy."
CLC 1023: Sex and CultureAssignments: Works Cited Policy
VERY IMPORTANT
A Works Cited page MUST be included at the end of EVERY assignment in CLC 1023.
Failure to include a Works Cited page at the end of an assignment will result in the automatic deduction of TWO marks from the grade for that assignment.
NOTES:
1. Though the four assignments for CLC 1023 are not highly formal research essays in a senior-level sense, they are nevertheless ACADEMIC papers requiring annotation in accordance with the standard principles and formats of citation developed for scholarly writing in the Arts and Humanities.
2. Do not pad your Works Cited list just to look impressive. List only the books, articles, lecture notes, online sources, film dialogue, and other materials you have actually quoted (directly) or paraphrased (indirectly) in your argument. Honesty is always the best policy in citation. A Works Cited list can be perfectly respectable even if it contains only one entry.
3. The Work Cited list must include – at the very least – bibliographical
information relevant
to the PRIMARY SOURCE(S) consulted for the assignment. For instance, you must
quote the translation of Plato's Symposium you used for Assignment #2. Even
if a work strikes you as an "obvious" source, like a required reading
for the course, you must still carefully cite it.
4. Follow the citation guidelines of the Modern Languages Association (available online).
5. Though SECONDARY SOURCES within or beyond the CLC 1023 required reading/viewing
lists may be consulted, you are not required to do so unless the instructions
for an assignment indicate otherwise. The teaching staff encourages you to do
so, however, because bibliographical exploration beyond the required reading
list is a sign of intellectual engagement with the course and may serve to increase
your Breakout Group Engagement grade.
6. Consult with your TA (before you submit an assignment) if you have any specific
questions about annotation or citation.
7. The 2-mark deduction does not apply to footnotes. Some of your assignments may not need any footnotes, but ALL four assignments require a Works Cited page.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture Assignment #1: Instructions
"Lay Down Your Tracks"
Official Due Date: Mon, Sept 29
Extended Due Date: Wed., Oct. 15
"You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks…"
– Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer"
1. Watch the following two music videos on YouTube:
a) "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (1986):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyc37aOqT0;
b) "Cherish" by Madonna (1989): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNhYMwmOv2A&feature=related.
2. Write a 5-page comparative essay on the representation or "construction" of the Erotic Body in these videos. Consider how the body of the lover/singer ("I") differs from that of the love-object ("You") in each, and how the different gender perspectives of the two singers might affect their contrasting representations of sexual desire and sexual embodiment.
3. In your essay, analyze any verbal, visual, or musical features of the two
videos that contribute to their erotic impact or implications. Such features
may include:
(a) sexual tropes or terms;
(b) sexual spaces or zones;
(c) sexual icons or roles.
4. Make sure you follow the Standard Format for Assignments: Title page + 5 pages of commentary + Works Cited page.
5. Remember to include the mandatory Works Cited page at the end of your assignment. At the very least, your Works Cited list must include correct MLA citations for the two internet sources (including title of video, performer's name, names of composer and lyricist, date of release, and URL).
NOTE: Focus your commentary on the figurative language, symbolic spaces, and
iconic roles in the two videos. Personal information is irrelevant to the assignments
for CLC 1023.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignment #2: Instructions
"Come Together"
Official Due Date: Monday, November 17
Extended Due Date: Monday, December 1
"Breaking up is never easy, I know, "Got to be good-looking cause
he's so hard to see
But I had to go…" Come together, right now, over me…"
-- ABBA, "Knowing Me, Knowing You" -- Lennon/McCartney, "Come
Together"
1. Reflect on how sexual violence in Ancient Greek culture was ritually associated
with the Dionysian action of rending, splitting, dividing, breaking up. Variations
of this action figure prominently in the tragic plot poetic imagery of the Bacchae,
and in the mythic allusions and philosophical discourses of the Symposium.
2. Consider the cultural opposite to this tragic response. Despite the long
tradition of erotomachic agony (breakups and breakdowns) in Greek poetry and
drama, Aristophanes in the Symposium boldly advances an Apollonian thesis about
the unifying power of sexual energy within the interconnected orders of nature
and culture, divinity and humanity:
"Eros is the name for the desire and pursuit of wholeness."
3. Write a 5-page dialectical essay in which you (a) discuss the validity of
this definition of Eros from the contrasting classical viewpoints [tragic versus
comic] of Euripides and Aristophanes; and (b) defend or refute the latter's
Apollonian thesis from your own contemporary viewpoint.
4. Make sure follow the Standard Format for Assignments: Title page + 5 pages of commentary + Works Cited page.
5. Remember to include the mandatory Works Cited page at the end of your assignment.
At the very least, your Works Cited list must include the translations of the
Bacchae and
the Symposium you consulted.
NOTE: Focus your essay on the development of a coherent argument from the thesis.
Personal information is irrelevant to the assignments for CLC 1023.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignment #3: Instructions
"Over the Borderline"
"Borderline -- feels like I'm going to lose my mind --
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline…"
-- Madonna, "Borderline"
Official Due Date: Monday, January 26
Extended Due Date: Monday, February 9
1. To prepare for this assignment, review the definition of an erotic allegory. Make sure you understand the difference between sexual tropes and erotic allegory. An erotic allegory extends sexual tropes (most often metaphor) into narrative.
2. Recall how Dante inherited many allegories of love from his literary and theological sources: e.g. the operation of Amor "plotted" as a war, as a disease, as a hunt, as a dance, as an epic journey, as a chivalric quest, as a religious pilgrimage. In the Inferno no simple allegory of love prevails: rather, a demonically new and complex allegory of erotic life in the Fallen World develops from canto to canto through the convergence and collision of earlier allegories of love from the classical, Christian, and chivalric traditions.
3. Choose ONE of the four cantos of the Inferno studied in the course (5, 15, 16, 28) and in a 5-page commentary examine how Dante parodies traditional allegories of love to push his pilgrim/narrator (and his reader) "over the borderline" from the safe familiar domain of Taboo into the dangerous unfamiliar realm of Transgression.
4. On PAGE 5, conclude your commentary with a reflection on Dante's attitude
towards
the Chivalric Lover's solution to Augustine's Cupidity/Charity binary.
5. Make sure follow the Standard Format for Assignments: Title page + 5 pages
of
commentary + Works Cited page.
6. Remember to include the mandatory Works Cited page at the end of your assignment. At the very least, your Works Cited list must include the translation of the Inferno you consulted.
NOTE: Focus your essay on close readings of passages from your chosen canto. Personal information is irrelevant to the assignments for CLC 1023.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Assignment #4: Instructions
"Everything Old is New Again"
Don't throw the past away Everything old is new again
You might need it some rainy day Everything under the sun
Dreams can come true again All of our fears come true again
When everything old is new again Recycle reuse…Resent and refuse
-- Peter Allen, "Everything Old is New Again" --Barenaked Ladies,
"Everything Old is New Again"
Official Due Date: Monday, March16
Extended Due Date: Monday, March 30
1. Prepare for this assignment by reflecting on the continuities between the
erotic icons
of the first term and those of the second term.
2. View EITHER Sex and the City (the movie) OR any episode from Sex and the City (the TV series) through the critical "lens" of Sex and Culture. Have a paper and pencil handy to jot down relevant observations of the work as you're viewing it. Consider, for instance, how the nostalgic deployment of traditional erotic icons and sexual myths (e.g. Samantha's experience of Dante's "hell") serves to sustain a seductively glamorous yet paradoxical vision of heterosexual romance as the culmination of the libertinage unleashed by the Sexual Revolution.
3. View it a second time imagining how the Marquis de Sade or Judith Butler would respond to the erotic icons and sexual myths represented in it. In other words, view the work through a specifically Sadean or Butlerian "lens" (i.e. philosophical perspective).
4. On PAGES 1 through 4, construct a dialogue between yourself and Sade, OR between yourself and Butler, OR between Sade and Butler, in which rival readings of the show are articulated and contrasted.
5. On PAGE 5, draw your dialogue to a close by reflecting on the Sadean and/or Butlerian ironies latent in the idea of the Sexual Revolution.
6. Make sure follow the Standard Format for Assignments: Title page + 5 pages
of
commentary + Works Cited page.
NOTE: Focus your analysis on specific events and conversations within the film
or the television show. Personal information is irrelevant to the assignments
for CLC 1023.
CLC 1023: Sex and Culture
Contact Information
Professor James Miller, Course Director
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
University College 351 (Office) and The Pride Library (Weldon Mainfloor)
University Extension: 85828
jmiller@uwo.ca
Professor Kelly Olson, Adjunct Co-Ordinator
Department of Classical Studies
Talbot College 425 (Office)
University Extension: 84525
kolson2@uwo.ca
Prerequisite: none
Antirequisite: none
Please Note: You are responsible for ensuring that you have successfully completed all course prerequisites (or have special permission from your Dean to waive the prerequisite) and that you have not taken an antirequisite course. If you are not eligible for the course, you may be removed from it at any time, and it will be deleted from your record. In addition, you will receive no adjustment to your fees. These decisions cannot be appealed.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's verbatim or paraphrased text in one's own written work without immediate reference. Verbatim text must be surrounded by quotation marks or indented if it is longer than four lines. A reference must follow right after borrowed material (usually the author's name and page number). Without immediate reference to borrowed material, a list of sources at the end of a written assignment does not protect a writer against the possible charge of plagiarism. The University of Western Ontario uses a plagiarism-checking site called Turnitin.com.
Absenteeism
Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests,
exams, participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic
Counselling office of their home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic
accommodation cannot be granted by the instructor or department.
UWO's Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness (https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm)
Downloadable Student Medical Certificate (SMC): https://studentservices.uwo.ca
under the Medical Documentation heading