SLL3001F: Sex from Sappho to Cyber

Please note: The class essay is set ONLY on vampires. The exam will thus offer a choice ONLY between internet sexuality (sex blogging) and fan fiction. THERE WILL NOT BE A QUESTION ON VAMPIRES AND THE EROTIC IN THE EXAM.

June paper 2009

EITHER:

Give a man a mask and he'll tell you the truth. Yes, but if he's wearing a mask, how do you verify this supposed truth-telling? (MonMouth)

OR:

Many examples of erotic fan fiction either add sexual elements to a text which does not include these elements in canon, or greatly exaggerate sexual subtexts present in the canon. In a detailed analysis of one or more examples of erotic fan fiction, suggest why the writer has chosen this particular text to eroticise: what do the writer's choices reveal about both the lacks and the opportunities they perceive in the canon text?
(NB you may not use "Mortal Instruments" as your main example in this question, although you may refer to it in passing).

June paper 2008

EITHER:

Characters in the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft have been known to take part in online weddings. What would be the specifically erotic potential in playing a fantasy character within the sword-and-sorcery group adventure/quest environment of World of Warcraft? What would the MMORPG interface offer a player that real-life sexual interaction does not: conversely, what are the dangers and drawbacks of erotic interactions in a MMORPG?

OR:

If fan fiction is the literature of spaces, what kind of spaces in the canon text are most appealing to a writer of erotic fan fiction? What kinds of pleasure does the filling of these spaces offer the writer? You should illustrate your comments with detailed reference to the fan fiction of a specific film, television or literary text. You may not use "Mortal Instruments" as your main example in answering this question.

June paper 2007

EITHER:

Why do you think the internet's abstracted spaces appeal to participants in net.sex? What additional possibilities for erotic interaction are offered by forums such as MUDs and MMORPGs? Your answer should pay some attention to issues of identity, power and play.

OR:

Given the demographic of fine-fiction writers and readers, i.e. predominantly female, what is the erotic appeal of slash fan fiction?

June paper 2006

EITHER:

Is rape possible in cyberspace? Why? Your answer should touch on issues of the real and unreal in the online construction of identity.

OR:

Discuss the fan fiction concept of a "Mary Sue" specifically in terms of its ability to embody and explore desire.

June paper 2005

EITHER:

Discuss the erotic possibilities offered by anonymity, persona and identity play in the construction of sexual relationships online.

OR:

Fan fiction is the literature of spaces, the writer projecting an individual expression into the margins and lacunae of the text.
With close reference to one specific work of fan fiction, or the fan fiction of a particular canon text, discuss the ways in which the fic's author(s) exploit(s) gaps and possibilities in the original story to specifically erotic effect.
(NB you may NOT use "Mortal Instruments" as your example in this question).

Supplementary paper 2005

EITHER:

Is infidelity possible through a textual relationship? Why? Discuss, paying some attention to the implications your conclusions have for the reality of online sex.

OR:

With particular reference to one specific work of fan fiction, or the fan fiction of a particular canon text, discuss fan fiction's potential to explore a particularly transgressive notion of the erotic.
(NB you may NOT use "Mortal Instruments" as your example in this question).

June paper 2004

EITHER:

BUFFY: See, this is what I hate about you vampires. Sex and death and love and pain, it’s all the same damned thing to you.
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7, "Conversations with Dead People").

Discuss the particular erotic and imaginative space offered by the vampire’s symbolic conflation of desire and violence. You should illustrate your answer with detailed reference to a specific vampire text, in literature, film or any other medium.

OR:

Discuss the possibilities and pitfalls in the entirely textual construction of an erotic relationship between two real people. How does the Internet enable this kind of relationship? Is it "real"? Why?

OR:

"The gaze of the camera is the gaze of the lover." Why should the medium of film, particularly, give rise to a powerful tradition of erotic fan fiction? Support your answer with detailed reference to the fan fiction of a particular film or TV text.

Supplementary paper 2004

EITHER:

In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner. … All three had brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.
(Bram Stoker, Dracula).

With detailed reference to a particular vampire text in any medium, discuss the symbolic problems presented by the figure of the female vampire.

OR:

Is there such a thing as "the body" in an online erotic relationship? Your answer should refer to issues both of the real and of the abstract body.

OR:

With detailed reference to the fan fiction of a particular text (TV series, film, etc), discuss the phenomenon of slash fan fiction. Why does it exist? What particular imaginative and erotic function does it fulfil?

June paper 2003

EITHER:

Vampires and sexuality

The thick symbolic armour beneath which Eros hides is no other than a system of conscious or unconscious shields that separates desire from the representation of it.
(Italo Calvino)

With particular reference to one vampire text (in literature, film or any other medium), and to Calvino’s statement, discuss the ways in which the figure of the vampire offers possibilities for the representation of transgressive desire.

OR:

Cybersexuality

Net.sex in text mode plays into an “ascii unconscious”, the mutual spelling out of desires, commands and positions; the fantasies that usually accompany any sex suddenly appear “real” and generated between you and your partner.
(Alan Sondheim)

In the light of the above, discuss the problems and potentials inherent in the Internet’s apparent ability to embody sexual fantasy via textual interaction. Your answer should take note of issues of the body, identity and play.

OR:

Internet fan fiction

With specific reference either to the Mary-Sue phenomenon or to slash fan fiction, discuss fan fiction’s ability to offer a space for the expression of a highly personalised erotic. You should illustrate your answer with detailed reference to the fan fiction of one particular canon text (literary, film or TV).

Supplementary paper 2003

EITHER:

Vampires and sexuality

With particular reference to one or two vampire texts in any medium (literature, film, TV), discuss the figure of the female vampire as a complex site of the erotic.

OR:

Cybersexuality

…there’s an odd inversion at work. On a naïve level in real life, one begins with the real… On the Net, it’s the opposite. One begins with the text of the other, which is directly coupled only to text and exchange of texts - and out of this one constructs a real…
(Alan Sondheim)

In the light of the above, discuss the problems and potentials in expressing sexuality through online textual interactions. How far are such interactions “real”?

OR:

Internet fan fiction

With particular reference to the fan fiction of a particular text (novel, TV series, etc), discuss fan fiction as a vehicle for the expression of an individual and personalised erotic. How far does such an expression require transgression of the boundaries set by a particular canon text, and why?

June paper 2002

EITHER:

Vampires and the erotic

“Pornography involves an abstraction of human intercourse in which the self is reduced to its formal elements. In its most basic form, these elements are represented by the probe and the fringed hole, the twin signs of male and female in graffiti…”
(Angela Carter).

With detailed reference to one vampire text of your choice (in literature, film or any other medium), discuss the figure of the vampire as a representation of sexuality in terms of the above quote.

OR:

Internet sexuality

Using a specific example for illustration (e.g. Star Trek slash, Tolkien slash, etc), discuss the phenomenon of slash fan fiction as an aspect of the Internet’s ability to offer a communal space in which to enact forbidden erotic desires.

Supplementary paper 2002

Vampires and the erotic

Rosemary Jackson has commented that “the literature of the fantastic … is all that is not said, all that is unsayable through realistic forms.” With detailed reference to one vampire text of your choice (in literature, film or any other medium), discuss the figure of the vampire as the site of an erotic of the forbidden or corrupt.

OR:

Internet sexuality

The Internet offers unparalleled opportunity for the invention of sexual personae and the free play of desire.” Discuss the structures of EITHER chat-room sexual encounter OR erotic fan-fiction narratives in terms of this statement.

Return to Unreal Sex page.