ENH2260

Sexing the text: constructions of female sexuality

(ART)

D Cuthbert

8 points + 3 hours per week + Second semester + Clayton + Prohibitions: CLS2260/3260, WMN2260/3260

Synopsis: This subject will consider how ideas about femaleness, about the female body and sexuality are represented within a range of texts - popular literature (the women's magazine, the romance novel), poetry, prose, criticism and film (Basic Instinct, Psycho, Paris is Burning). It will pose questions such as the following: To what extent do these texts inscribe or critique femaleness as biologically determined, and or as construed and performed? What are some of the alternatives to a rigid masculine/feminine model to account for sexual difference and for the mechanisms of desire? These issues will be considered through a focussed analysis of selected textual examples.

Assessment: