Sadomasochism and Early Modern Literature

This class considers the political, psychic, sexual, and aesthetic implications of pain and pleasure in early modern literature. Primary texts include Shakespeare’s sonnets and comedies, Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, and poetry by the Earl of Rochester, Robert Herrick, and Aphra Behn. Secondary texts include Deleuze, Freud, MacKinnon, Bersani, Jane Gallop, and Laura Kipnis.