HSY2400

Sexuality Decadence and Modernity: Politics Culture and Society in Europe, c1880-1918

(ART)

To be advised

6 points + 2 hours per week + Second semester + Clayton + Prerequisites: A first-year sequence in History or permission + Prohibition: HSY3400

Synopsis: This course will explore the changing ideas on sexuality, gender subjectivity, the advent of eugenics and sexology as well as the emergence of 'modernism' in art and literature. It will also look at questions of race: at concerns about degeneration and 'race suicide', at the emergence of anti-Semitism, and at the connection between racial concerns and questions about sexuality. It will look at the emergence of new sexual identities: at the new and aggressive forms of masculinity associated with imperial expansion and the ways they were contrasted with the effeminate men of subject races and with degenerate dandies and homosexuals as well as with women.

Assessment: Group presentation and report (10 minutes): 20% + Tutorial presentation: 10% + Essay (2500 words): 45% + Examination (1 hour): 25%