Bibliography

Essay topic 2010

Past exam questions

SLL3001F: Sex from Sappho to Cyber 2010

This section of the course covers the non-explicit or unrealistic representation of sexuality, focusing on fantasy, symbol and metaphor (the vampire in fiction) and various expressions of sexuality on the Internet. These include issues of identity, play and sexual construction in text-based internet interactions and in sex-blogging, and the narrative possibilities of on-line fan fiction.

  • 26 April: Introduction
    Unreal sex - fantasy and desire

    The gap between sexuality and representation; representing without representing.
    The sexual act indirectly represented as a different kind of act, or on a different level of reality from that of the physical body.
    The unreality of sex in literature.
    Reading: Calvino, "Definitions of Territories: Eroticism"
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 28 April: The Vampire - sexuality and symbol
    The figure of the vampire as a non-real and symbolic expression of sexuality
    Seduction, domination, orgasm as death.
    Social context and the erotic of the forbidden
    NB: Venue change to Hum 2 for this lecture
  • 29 April: The Vampire - Victorian erotic anxiety.
    Reading: Extracts from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Lefanu's "Carmilla"
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 3 May: The Vampire - representing women
    Reading: Extract from The Sadeian Woman
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 4 May: The Postmodern Vampire:
    Reading: "Lady of the House of Love"
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 5 May: Sex and the Internet.
    The Internet as a forum for expressions of sexuality; identity, play and role-play.
    Reading: "Very Secret Diary of Saruman the White"
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 6 May: Net.sex/Sexblogging
    Sexual personas, sexuality and identity in chat and blogs.
    Reading: please make sure you've done some Internet browsing and read through several months of at least one sex-blog before these lectures.
    NB: Venue change to Hum 2 for this lecture
  • 7 May: ESSAY DUE
  • 10 May: Sexblogging
    The reality of the abstract: internet and the body
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 11 May: Sexuality and fan-fiction
    Spaces in the canon; validating personal fantasy.
    Identification versus transgression.
    (NB please also make sure you’ve also done some Internet browsing and read some random samples of fanfic before these lectures)
    Reading: "Mortal Instruments"
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A
  • 12 May: Sexuality and fan-fiction
    The Mary Sue - private desires.
    Fantasy as wish-fulfilment.
    Slash fiction - embracing the homo-erotic.
    Fan fiction and gender dynamics.
    Venue: Leslie Social Sciences 6A

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