Instructor: Professor Susanne Klausen
This year’s seminar will focus on “transgressive” sexualities. We will examine the ways that different societies and in different time periods, officials of both state and church constructed difference through sexuality. Many categories of people were defined by their sexual practices or their sexual partners and thus were subject to legal and social strictures. Readings for this class will be thematic and will touch upon many regions and time periods. Included in our focus will be prostitutes, homosexuals and lesbians, multi-racial couples, transsexuals and others. We will examine both official doctrines and unofficial cultures of tolerance and intolerance.