SEX AND TEXT IN FREUD’S VIENNA
Professor of German Studies Leo Lensing’s course examines sexual discourses in early 20th century Vienna through fundamental texts of psychoanalysis.
“Sexuality became the lingua franca for Viennese intellectuals,” Lensing said. He also noted that the appearance of sexual discourse in Vienna led to new, exciting writing about sexuality.
Besides Freud, students read works by Arthur Schnitzler, a playwright whose works are still produced, and look at paintings by expressionist painter Egon Schiele.
Lensing has been teaching this provocative course on and off for approximately 15 years; it was previously known as “Sexuality and Textuality” at Yale University, where he once taught.
“You’d think you’d get tired of these things,” Lensing said of Schiele’s work. “But students get very excited about these paintings.”
HARLOTS, RAKES, AND LIBERTINES
Taught by Assistant Professor of English Joseph Drury, this class analyzes the “literary history of libertinism.” Following the decline of religious dogmatism in the 18th century, writers began to explore personal satisfaction and pleasure in their work. The course includes readings from the Earl of Rochester, Daniel Defoe, and, of course, the novel “Fanny Hill.”
“In America, you have culture wars,” said the Oxford-educated Drury. “There is a perception in America that there are East Coast liberal elites who are sexually promiscuous and suspicious of traditional religious values. Abortions and divorce. You have red states, in which it is assumed tradition is more important than new ideas. There is prohibition…and emphasis on marriage.”
Drury says the origins of this national debate can be traced back to the 18th century, when the writers of the time were at the forefront of such a discourse. The class was originally imagined as “Rakes, Whores and Libertines,” at the University of Pennsylvania, but Drury thought that UPenn students would not want such a provocative title on their transcript when applying to graduate schools.
“It stands out…and I’m glad [the Argus] caught sight of it,” Drury said.
Unlike the other courses profiled here, this class will run in the spring term.
CHICANA LESBIAN LITERATURE: SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Visiting Professor of English Demian Pritchard’s course invites students to read a series of poems, critical essays, personal essays, short stories, novels and plays written by Chicana Lesbian authors.
“Lesbian authors have been instrumental in changing Chicana studies and literature,” Pritchard said. “Their work is hugely influential and brilliant.”
According to Pritchard, Chicana lesbian authors are distinctive because of their insistence on thinking that gender politics and racial politics are inexorably entwined.
She added that Chicana lesbians, as multilingual people living on the outside of much of American society, must use their multilingualism to express and identify themselves. “Lingua,” Spanish for “tongue,” means both a literal tongue and a language. Thus, the course title acknowledges the sexual and linguistic significance of tongues, and how Chicana lesbian authors must negotiate intersections of their lives with language.
GOD AFTER THE DEATH OF GOD: POSTMODERN ECHOES OF PREMODERN THOUGHT
Anyone interested in the poststructuralist tradition, Heidegger’s “death of metaphysics” or Nietzche’s declaration that “God is dead, and we have killed him,” will probably enroll in this class sometime during their Wesleyan career.
Assistant Professor of Religion Mary-Jane Victoria Rubenstein’s class grew out of one of her college master’s theses at Cambridge University. The course explores how atheistic movements are often similar to the medieval mystical traditions in structure. Ultimately, the course is meant to understand and reconcile the uncanny similarities between pre- and post-modern theologies.
Rubenstein explained that her dramatic choice of title was intended to match the tone of the course.
“The subject matter itself is very dramatic,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to fish for enrollments.”
OTHER NOTABLY SAUCY TITLES:
The Making of American Jewish Identities; Blood, Bris, Bagels and Beyond
Assistant Professor of Religion Henry Goldschmidt
Women and Pots
Professor of Classical Studies Marilyn Katz
Zombies as Other: From Haiti To Hollywood
Associate Professor of Religion and American Studies Elizabeth McAlister