Just the Reading Schedule

Sexuality and American Popular Culture

Dr. Lampert

Weekly Schedule

**Subject to Revisions / Revised 2/19/15

Week 1 Key Concepts

Jan 13 Introduction 

Jan 15 Concepts and Frameworks

Jeffrey Weeks, "The Invention of Sexuality" Sexuality

Lawrence Levine, "The Folklore of Industrial Society" American Historical Review   

Week 2 America’s First Bestseller

Jan 20 The First American Bestseller

Begin reading Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple, through Chapter XVIII (pg XLIX-70)

Jan 22 The Appeal of the Seduction Tale

Finish Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple, from Chapter XIX-XXXV (pg 70-132)

Week 3 Theater in America

Jan 27 Presenting Lydia Thompson

Robert Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture (1991), Chapters 1-2

Jan 29 The Contested World of Theater

Robert Allen, Horrible Prettiness, Chapters 3-4

Week 4 Burlesque and Minstrelsy

Feb 3 Understanding Burlesque

Robert Allen, Horrible Prettiness, Chapter 5

Feb 5 Making Sense of Minstrelsy

Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Ch 5 “The Seeming Counterfeit” and Ch 6 “Genuine Negro Fun”

Week 5 Narratives of Manhood

Feb 10 Buffalo Bill and the Dime Novel

“Literature for the Million” in Popular Culture and American History ed. Jim Cullen

Feb 12 Tarzan of the Apes

John Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man, Ch 3 “Still a Wild Beast a Heart”

Week 6 Race and Film

Feb 17 Birth of a Nation and Tarzan of the Apes

Leon Litwack, “The Birth of Nation” in Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies

Reviews of Birth of a Nation

Feb 19 No Reading - Film Discussion 

Week 7 The Bad Woman*

Feb 24 Women and Cinema
Janey Staiger, Bad Women, Ch 4 and Choose Ch 5 or 6

Feb 26 Dance Madness

Shayla Thiel-Stern, From the Dance Hall to Facebook, Ch 1 “The Dance Hall Evil, 1905-1928”

Week 8 Queer Life and Desire*

Mar 3 Class Politics and Queer Identity

George Chauncy, Gay New York, Ch 3 “Trade, Wolves, and the Boundaries of Normal Manhood” and Ch 4 “The forging of Queer Identities”

Mar 5 Singing the Blues
Angel Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Ch1 

*Make sure you have posted at least 2 blog entries on course readings by Weds night!

Spring Break

*You should have your topic picked out for your final project!

Week 9 The Shirley Temple Problem

Mar 17 Interpretations of Shirley Temple

Ara Osterwil, “Reconstructing Shirley: Pedophilia and Interracial Romance in Hollywood” Camera Obscura 72:24 (2009)

Kristen Hatch, “Discipline and Pleasure: Shirley Temple and the Spectacle of Child Loving” Camera Obsura 79:27 (2012)

*Make sure you have posted about your final project idea by Weds night!

Mar 19 Working with Cultural Texts

Your final project should incorporate some type of (popular) cultural text(s) along with appropriate historical and scholarly sources. For our workshop, bring in a cultural text that you will be engaging with in your final project.

Week 10 Not So Ozzie and Harriet

Mar 24 Lesbian Pulp and the 1950s

Yvonne Keller, “Lesbian Pulp Novels and U.S. Lesbian Identity” from American Sexual Histories 2^nd ed.

Mar 26 “Fracured Fairy Tales”

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are, Intro and Chs 1-2

*Text Analysis Paper Due

Week 11 The Sexual Revolution

Mar 31 The Sounds of Revolution

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are, Chs 3-5

Apr 2 Revolt!

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are, Chs 6-8

Week 12

Apr 7 Pecha Kucha Workshop

Today we’re going to workshop and troubleshoot your presentations for Thursday

Apr 9 No Class – Women’s and Gender Studies Conference

*Pecha Kucha Presentations Due

Week 13 Race and Music

Apr 14 Sexual Politics of Rap

Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, Ch 1 “Voices from the Margins” and Ch 5 “Bad Sistas”

Apr 16 Sexuality and Pop Music Today

Reading TBA

Bring in an example of a contemporary controversy concerning sexuality and pop music!

Week 14 Queer Worlds

Apr 21 Screening of Paris is Burning

No Reading!

Apr 23 Discussion of Paris is Burning

bell hooks,  Black Looks: Race and Representation, “Is Paris Burning?” and “Madonna”

Week 15 The Twi-hard Phenomenon

Apr 28 Ah, Bella and Edward

Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, through Chapter 12

Apr 30 Our Las Discussion!

Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, Finish novel