The History of Obscenity, 1500 to the present

HIST 102.303
Monday, 2:00 - 5:00
Instructor: Sarah L. Leonard
PHF Mellon Fellow, History

This course will examine the philosophical, social, and legal history of obscenity in Europe from 1500 to the present. Using primary sources and recent work by historians, we will study the evolution of the term "obscenity" and related concepts of blasphemy, obscene libel, and pornography. Particular attention will be paid to the intersections between obscenity and the growth of modern political and cultural forms. Beginning with the Renaissance and the Reformation, we will see how Humanism sparked new interest in human nature and sexuality. These were topics that could now be explored via the new technology of the printed book. During the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, obscenity was linked to the growth of democratic theory, as political and social critiques of the Old Regime were often couched in the language of sexual transgression. Following the Revolutionary period, we will consider how notions of obscenity transformed with the growth of the modern nationalism and the unprecedented violence of twentieth-century warfare. Finally, we will study recent feminist debates about the definitions and effects of modern pornography.

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Scandal and the Body Politic in Modern Europe

HIST 102.301
Wednesday, 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Jennifer S. Milligan
PHF Mellon Fellow, History

This course will examine the affairs, scandals, and sensational events that rocked and intrigued Europe and its empire in the long 19th century. Central to our investigation will be the question of “scandal” and politics—what makes for a scandal, and how do these events resonate in and shape the body politic? Beyond the historical narratives of scandals of the time, we will examine major themes such as the blurry boundaries of the public and private sphere; the power of sex and gender in defining scandal and politics; representations of interests and identity; censorship and battles over “public morality;” the mobilization of “outrage” against slavery; the rise of mass media and its critics; the marketplace and the economy of scandal; literature, art, and the shock of the modern; and fears of the public and mass democracy. We will look at primary sources, such as newspaper reports, novels, trial transcripts and other documentary evidence as well as current scholarly debates over the power of scandal and sensation to shape (or distort) political practice and debate in this crucial period. (Distribution II: History and Tradition)

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Books that Make you Cry: Print and Sensibility in the 18th Century

ENGL 016.301
Tuesday & Thursday, 3:00 - 4:30
Instructor: Jennifer Snead
PHF Mellon Fellow, English

You may have shed tears over a textbook while studying for an exam, but why would a book or a poem WANT to make you cry? And why would you seek out a book or poem that would do such a thing to you? This class takes print as the primary medium through which the later eighteenth century's cultural preoccupation with affective responses ("sensibility") was fostered and spread. "Sensibility" represented the eighteenth century's efforts to conceptualize the emotive manifestations of sensory perception - in other words, the body's effects upon the mind - and its symptoms became both fetishized and satirized. Why was eighteenth-century society so preoccupied with blurring the boundaries between body and mind, feeling and reason, books and bathos? What impact did it have on contemporary understandings of gender? Of the printed word itself as an expression of intangible things like thoughts and emotions? The course investigates these and related questions through literary representations and invocations of sensibility in the works of eighteenth-century writers on both sides of the Atlantic, like Sterne, Goldsmith, Smith, Temple, and Austen (among others). Regular weeping in class is recommended but not required. This class is affiliated with Writing Across the University and counts towards 1/2 of the College Writing Requirement. (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)

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Killing Time, Killing the Reader, Killing the Author: Old Habits in the New Media

SLAV 106.301
Tuesday & Thursday, 3-4:30
Instructor: Robert Romanchuk
PHF Mellon Fellow, Slavic Languages and Literatures

This course opens and closes with two important contemporary novels: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars. Both are "novels of ideas" set in the middle ages; both feature monks, mayhem, and a book that kills those who come too close. But while Eco's novel has the dubious honor of a Hollywood adaptation, Pavic's has been the inspiration for cutting-edge performance, music, and multimedia. What do these books and their adaptations tell us about present-day habits of reading and managing information, in the West and East? And why do both books kill not only their compilers and readers, but "kill time," turning back the clock to the middle ages? We will explore the possibility that many qualities of "new media" were already present in medieval texts, and that medievals may have conceptualized reading in ways that now seem closer to the postmodern. We will seek the origins of "bookish" and "hypertextual" styles of reading, currently struggling for dominance, in the middle ages and even before. We will watch film and video, read 20th- and 21st-century novels and stories on paper and on CD-ROM, and get our hands dirty with the information-managing practices of the middle ages to better understand those of our own age. Evaluation is based on discussion, responses in an on-line "open book" of the course, six short writing activities, and the in-class presentation of a hypertext of your own devising. All readings are in English. (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)

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Early Modern Spectacle and Theories of Enlightenment

FREN 207.301
Tuesday & Thursday, 3-4:30
Instructor: Geoffry Turnovsky
PHF Mellon Fellow, Romance Languages and Literatures

This course studies the central role of spectacle and "entertainment" (what Pascal called "divertissement") in the cultural life of 17th- and 18th-century France. We will explore the varieties of spectacle - in the theatre and official festivals at Versailles - with attention to their "multimedia," performative aspects. Film reconstructions of life at the Court of Louis XIV as well as performances of plays will provide opportunities to consider what might be left out when we discover, say, 17th-century French literature exclusively through the written texts of Racine and Molière. We will consider the importance of spectacle and “divertissement” for social and political life: how did the King use festivals and rituals to project, exercise and maintain his political power? How did early modern Society cohere through such seemingly frivolous activities as conversation and salon games? The course then turns to the importance of a critique of spectacle for the Enlightenment. Rejecting the passivity of the courtier, 18th century philosophers explored new ideas about society, individuality and citizenship. In this framework, we will extend our discussions to consider the implications of these issues for contemporary life: what is the importance today of spectacle, entertainment and its critique? Readings (in English) will include plays of Corneille, Racine, Molière; selections from the letters of Sévigné, and from works by Lafayette, Montesquieu, Diderot and Rousseau. In addition, we will watch performances of 17th century tragedy and comedy, as well as films such as Prise de pouvoir de Louis xvi, Vatel and Ridicule. (Distribution III: Arts and Letters)

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