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
