Of Water and Definitions
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
As I think of the second half of Eugenides’ saga, the image two images seem to beg further investigation: Calliope at the library, finding out who she is (at least as far as a dictionary definition can limit) and Cal in Bob Presto’s peepshow, head above water and body visible to all, who pay a […]
Of Water and Definitions
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Sunday, May 9th, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/opinion/08collins.html?src=me&ref=opinion An opinion by Gail Collins on the anniversary of the pill. She considers what has changed since then, especially in regards to formal sex ed. And, bonus for our discussions, she mentions Sanger and Comstock.
Tags: birth control, Comstock, sex ed
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Lifeboats and Binaries
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
In a novel of epic proportions such as Middlesex, images play a very important role. The narrator spends much time dwelling on the significance of certain images, whether comparing the burning city of Smyrna to his own childhood memories of a fireside charring of scrapped wrapping paper, or speeding time in explaining the functioning of […]
Lifeboats and Binaries
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Finding Angels in a World of Loss
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Finding Angels in a World of Loss The angelic prophecy has been revealed, and it has been rejected—by its own would-be prophet, Prior Walter. The prophecy is to just stop: to stop moving and migrating and changing, and if that happens, maybe God will return. Prior finds this prophecy a farce at best, dangerous at […]
Finding Angels in a World of Loss
Tags: angels, HIV/AIDS, homosexuality
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Nel and Sula
Monday, April 19th, 2010
Nel and Sula Nel Greene (nee Wright) and Sula Peace seem as if they could not be more different than they are. Nel is cool under pressure, rational, and, like her mother, Helene, retreats into rigid structures of tradition and custom when unsure of what to do. Sula is the direct opposite: she is hot […]
Nel and Sula
Posted in Joseph Papa, Morrison: Sula, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Dolly’s Return
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Dolly’s Return In my reading of Lolita thus far (I’m not quite done with the second part yet) two scenes seem to present themselves as extremely important and interesting, and both involve Lolita reverting to Dolly in resistance. As we have discussed, it seems HH needs to invent a totally new person, fully separate from […]
Dolly’s Return
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Humbert Humbert and Class
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Humbert Humbert and Class From the outset of Nabokov’s Lolita, it is apparent that issues of culture and class will be of considerable importance to the unfolding of the narrative. Humbert Humbert is born of parents of different ethnic backgrounds and grows up in the life of a privileged child in Western Europe. His early […]
Humbert Humbert and Class
Tags: Humbert, social class
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Victorian Discourse in Volumes
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
Victorian Discourse in Volumes In the Puritan world, the hand of God or the temptation of the devil were to be found anywhere and everywhere. For the Victorians, the readings for this week seem to point less to an obsession with sin than to an obsession with words and language.
Victorian Discourse in Volumes
Tags: birth control, Free Lovers, perversion, power, resistance, Victorians
Posted in Joseph Papa, Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Victorian Discourse in Volumes
The Never-Ending Confession
Monday, March 8th, 2010
The Never-Ending Confession The Scarlet Letter, a novel so imbued with the themes of sin, guilt, and confession, has an interesting confessional: the scaffold. Hester is taken to the scaffold early in the narrative and a confession is demanded of her, but she refuses that with silence. Her silence is in itself a powerful act, […]
The Never-Ending Confession
Tags: confession, Hester Prynne, passionless, Puritan, scaffold, sin
Posted in Foucault: History of Sexuality, Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, Joseph Papa, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Who Is Persecuted or Prosecuted for Deviance from Sexual Norms?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Who Is Persecuted or Prosecuted for Deviance from Sexual Norms? In reading the documents on the role of sex and sexual structures in colonial New England, and the first part of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, what seems most striking is the role that accusations of sexual deviance and the persecution or prosecution of such played […]
Who Is Persecuted or Prosecuted for Deviance from Sexual Norms?
Posted in Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, Joseph Papa, Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality | 2 Comments »