Reading Sex in Premodern England

3 units

This course introduces students to the literary representation of gender and sexuality in England from the medieval period to the eighteenth century. To understand a tradition that addressed the intractable problem of human sexuality in terms very different from ours, we will ask: how does pre-modern culture imagine gendered identities, sexual difference, and erotic desire? How do various contexts-medical, religious, social, private, public-inform the literary representation of gender and sexuality? What are the anatomies and economies of the body, the circuits of physical pleasure, and the disciplines of the self that characterize human sexuality? Students will have the opportunity to study romances, saints' lives, mystical writings, diaries, plays, sex guides, novels, and scientific treatises. By learning how to read sex in pre-modern literature, students will acquire a broad cultural and historical understanding of English sexualities before the descent of modern sensibilities.