Language, Gender and PowerKatherine Stephenson
WMST 6603,095 / MALS 6000,095COED 441 (687-8751)
Fall 2014, 5:308:15 W, COED 202Office Hours: 1:30-2:00TR, 4:50-5:20 TWR
and by appt.
Questions for Week 10 readings. These are some of the questions we will discuss in class. Your journal entries do not have to focus on them in detail, or even separately. They are provided primarily to guide you in your reading, help you focus on the material most pertinent to our class, and prepare your discussion of the texts.
Oct. 16 2014 WGST OUTSpoken Guest Speakers"The Read," featuring Kid Fury and Crissle West,7 pm, McKnight Auditorium; attendance required
Journal Entry (due next week, Oct. 22): In a paragraph or two, relate this lecture to class readings and discussions.
Oct. 22 CORPOREAL FEMINISM II: THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER AND SEXED IDENTITY
Moodle2and free e-textbooks (link on course’sMoodle2site):
Terrance MacMullan, Revealing Male Bodies: Introduction (1-16)
Maurice Hamington and William Cowling, Revealing Male Bodies: Postscript (287-89)
Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Introduction (1-16), Ch. 1: “Theorizing Masculinity” (17-54), Ch. 2: “Social Masculinity and Triangulation” (55- 71), Ch. 3:“Sexing Masculinity”(72-90), Ch. 4 “Theorizing the Male Body” (91-118)
Reading Guidelines:
**Term paper abstract, detailed outline and annotated bibliography**
Terrance MacMullan, Revealing Male Bodies: Introduction (1-16)
1. What corrective does MacMullan see analyses of male embodiment offering to studies of masculinities?
2. What are the major issues he identifies in the work of the main theorists and in the main methodologies referred to in this anthology?
3. What are the major themes and interconnections he identifies among the analyses in the anthology?
Maurice Hamington and William Cowling, Revealing Male Bodies: Postscript (287-89)
4. How do the authors characterize the relationship between male bodies and power, and the consequences of this relationship? How do they say this anthology challenges this relationship?
5. How do they mobilize the concept of multiplicity in relation to the male body?
6. How do they characterize this anthology (as we have seen other authors characterize theory) and how do they propose that theorists can move beyond what it accomplishes? In other words, what further work do they suggest be done concerning the male body and what difficulties do they foresee for such work?
Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Introduction (1-16), Ch. 1: “Theorizing Masculinity” (17-54), Ch. 2: “Social Masculinity and Triangulation” (55- 71), Ch. 3:“Sexing Masculinity”(72-90), Ch. 4 “Theorizing the Male Body” (91-118)
Reeser's text is the primary text I want you to concentrate on this week. It is the first of several texts that you will analyze according to the theoretical models and strategies covered in the course up to this point. Weedon presented a feminist poststructuralism and other course texts presented poststructuralist and postmodern analyses. You should thus be able to closely follow Reeser's predominately poststructuralist analysis of masculinities. I want you to be able to summarize the basic premises of Reeser's approach and various theories in his exploration of masculinities, as well as to provide examples illustrative of them. You may use the outline below of the various titles he provides in these chapters to take notes and develop your summaries. You may instead make an outline of the various questions he poses within each section to set up his analyses and then provide various answers he proposes. Or you may simply make a list of the key terms and concepts he mobilizes to set up his approaches and analyses, with descriptions and illustrative examples. Each student will read all the material (pages 1-118) and then be responsible for a written summary, per instructions above, of one of the 5 chapters. You will turn in this written summary with your journal entry and bring it to class, as well, to prompt you in reporting on your chapter. You may also comment on or take notes on the other chapters in your journal entry, but this is not required.
1A. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Introduction“The Study of Masculinity” (1-16)
Why Masculinities?
Why Masculinities in Theory?
Why Masculinities in Post-Structuralist Theory?
1B. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Ch. 1: “Theorizing Masculinity”(17-54)
The Origins of Masculinity
Masculinity as Ideology
Masculinity, Language, and Discourse
Masculinity as Sign
Masculinity in Dialogue
Masculinity as Continual Movement
The Excesses of Post-Structuralism: Toward a Moderate Approach to Masculinity
1C. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Ch. 2: “Social Masculinity and Triangulation” (55-71)
From Twoness to Threeness
Masculine Rivalry and the Anxiety of Homosexuality
Masculinity and the Exchange of Women
Triangulation Transformed
1D. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Ch. 3: “Sexing Masculinity” (72-90)
Masculinity and Maleness
Performing Masculinity
1E. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Ch. 4 “Theorizing the Male Body” (91-118)
Culture and the Male Body
Power, Resistance, and the Male Body
Imagining the Male Body
The Fluid Male Body
Projecting the Male Body on Screen