If Lolita was a novel that expanded our view of a “perverse” practice through the intimate diaries of the pedophilia Humbert Humbert, Middlesex obliterates our traditional understanding of the narrative to sexuality. Instead of merely presenting sexuality as an extension of a person’s identity, as proposed by Humbert’s pedophilia or Hester’s act of Adultery, Middlesex’s […]
In both “Angels in America Part two: Perestroika” and the essay by Bayer, we are given the complexity of coping with a disease that blurs the boundaries between personal freedom and state obligation, separation and community, and ultimately, the freedom to live and a dignified death. Compared to syphilis in the Piess introductory paragraphs, AIDS […]
For this week’s reading I was particular interested in the power dynamics between the female and male characters in the Toni Morrison’s novel “Sula,” which is also portrayed in Stevenson’s essay Slave Marriage and Family Relations. Stevenson argues that the though slaves where ultimately under the sovereign of their master, they were able to carve […]
In Nabokov’s Lolita, the narrator Humber Humbert states that: “I suppose I am especially susceptible to the magic of games” (233). This statement is essential in helping the reader understand not only the mentality of the characters within the book, but how we should read the book as well. In the first part of “Lolita”, […]
At first glance, Nabokov’s “Lolita” and the documents we had to read in conjunction had no apparent correlation. “Lolita” is through the perspective of what we would usually call a pedophile; whereas the text in “Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality” was commenting on the formation of heterosexual and homosexual standards and norms. […]
A couple of classes we go, we had an in depth discussion on the deployment of alliance in contrast to the deployment of sexuality. Where the deployment of alliance had stark binary oppositions, the deployment of sexuality was relational. Where the Deployment of alliance was enforced through law, the deployment of sexuality was through the […]
Last week, Professor Quinby reminded us that there is a dual authorship within the Scarlet letter: We must remember that we are being retold a puritan story from the perspective of a mid 19th-century Victorian infused narrator. The perspective of our narrator is just as important to understanding the modes of Victorian belief, and through […]
I should start off by saying that I want to examine the same issues that Sami has examined in her response, which is the discrepancy between the “act” of sexuality and an sexual identity in the Puritan era. Though Sami mentions this in her post, i want to focus more on the emphasis of the […]
This Is the Link to the Competition Homepage, Sponsored by NYTimes. Its about writing an essay about modern love, pertaining to gender roles, instantaneous communications, etc. You win $1000 but more importantly published in NYTimes sunday magazine! Winner From the last competition:
“History is written by the victors.” Who are the victors? Are they still standing? Are the losers silenced? Foucault’s approach to history and more specifically to sexually not only questions who history is written by, but when it is written. Foucault states that: “[Sexuality] is the name that can be given to a historical construct: […]
