Sexing the text: constructions of female sexuality
Rose Lucas
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: A first-year sequence
How is female sexuality/sexualities constructed within literary and cinematic texts? To what extent is it presented as a biological given, or as a product of conventional gender stereotypes? What are some of the alternatives to a rigid masculine/feminine model to account for sexual difference and for the mechanisms of desire? The subject considers these problematic issues in relation to a range of texts from a variety of media selected from across the distinctions of so-called high/popular art. It offers an in-depth analysis of the chosen textual examples in the context of a range of feminist theories about gender and sexual difference.
Assessment
Written (4500 words): 75% * Examination (1.5 hours): 25%
Prescribed texts
Fallon, M Working hot Sybylla, 1989
Turner Hospital, J Charades UQP, 1988
Winterson, J The passion Penguin, 1987
A Mills and Boon romance
A reading pack will also be available from the Centre for Women's Studies
Recommended text
Butler, J Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of "sex" Routledge, 1993