Sexuality, decadence and modernity: politics, culture and society in Europe, c.1880-1918
Proposed to be offered next in 1998
Barbara Caine
8 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* First semester
* Clayton
Objectives Students successfully completing this subject should have developed a knowledge of recent historical literature on this period, a general understanding of some of the theoretical issues involved in thinking about concepts such as `sexuality', `masculinity', `femininity', `modernism' and `decadence' in historical terms and a specific knowledge of their importance and meaning in this period, and an understanding of the nature of cultural history.
Synopsis This subject will explore a range of political, social, and cultural developments in the period from the 1890s to the First World War. It will attempt to indicate the connections between major political and social developments and intellectual and cultural ones, focussing particularly on the ways in which questions about gender and sexuality came to the fore through imperialism, the advent of eugenics and sexology as well as in 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 as a major cultural and political question, 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. The changing ideals of womanhood will also be explored through the many versions of the `new woman' and the emergence of feminist and suffrage movements. Questions about family life, sexuality and childhood will also be discussed. The course will conclude with a discussion of the First World War, looking at the ways in which the war brought a reversal of traditional experiences, ideas and expectations of the sexes as women were forced into a range of new roles and activities, while men suffered the traumas of trench warfare and shell-shock.
Assessment second year Seminar discussion: (10 minutes) 10%
*
Tutorial paper (1500 words): 25%
* Essay selected from essay list (3000
words): 35%
* Examination (1.5 hours): 30%
Assessment third year Seminar discussion (10 minutes): 10%
*
Literature review (1500 words): 25%
* Research essay (3000 words): 35%
* Examination (1.5 hours): 30%
Preliminary reading
Bauman Z Modernity and ambivalence 1991
Fletcher I (ed.) Decadence and the 1890s 1979
Mosse G L Nationalism and sexuality: Respectable and abnormal sexuality in modern Europe 1986
Walkowitz J City of dreadful delight: Narratives of sexual danger in late Victorian London 1992
Nochlin L and Tamar G (eds) The Jew in the text: Modernity and the construction of identity 1995
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