Sexuality and Modern American Thought

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course examines the ways Americans have thought about sexuality from the late nineteenth century to the present. Understandings of sexuality underwent tremendous changes as Americans grappled with a more urban, capitalist, and technological social order. Sexualities became more diverse, creating tensions and fractures. This course focuses on the role of intellectuals and institutions in imagining various modes of sexual life. Major themes of the course include liberation and social control, the religious against the secular, and “normativity” as contrasted with “deviance.” We will examine the rise and fall of the Victorian order, the popularity of psychoanalysis, the invention of sexology (the scientific study of sex), religion’s complex relationship to sexuality, movements for sexual rights, and identity politics. Readings will come from several disciplinary perspectives, including psychology, biology, history, sociology, and religious studies.