Monogamy and its Discontents

Undergraduate

While monogamy is central to Michel Foucault’s formulation of normative sexuality that arose in the 19th century (the Malthusian couple as adult, monogamous, heterosexual, married, and reproductive), little attention has been paid to it as a particular historical form of intimacy. We investigate this structure of intimacy through theoretical, historical, ethnographic, literary, and visual materials and think about the various meanings of monogamy historically as well as transnationally. Monogamy is entangled with relations of private property, with colonial civilizational narratives, with scientific theories about human nature. Polygamy in return has historically been understood as religious and/or cultural difference, and as a remnant of pre-modernity. The course weaves together theoretical readings that equip students with the tools to understand some key concepts that we need for our discussion, such as private property; the private family; colonialism and (cultural) imperialism; law and liberalism; and bourgeois morality with readings that more directly address some of the key ways in which monogamy is imagined, understood and framed. We discuss the turn to a recent rise in nonmonogamy in the “West” as a radical and “liberated” alternative to life-long or serial monogamy, at times featuring a critique of the private family, which constitutes a curious contrast to the nonmonogamy of religious and cultural Others of the West. Understanding the contemporary discourses and industries (books, podcasts, therapists’ youtube channels) around polyamory and nonmonogamy as a 21st century strategic unity, we analyze how liberalism has framed our understanding of sexual liberation and discuss alternative approaches to freedom. HU 0 Course cr T 1:30pm-3:25pm