ENGL-170 Sensation Nation: Scandal and Sexual Dissidence in U.S. Literature, 1790-1900

Professor Luciano

This course will examine the formative role of the sex scandal in the cultural consciousness of the US. Reading both canonical and popular literature, we will analyze the escalating importance of the body in the American political imaginary. The course will center on the connection between sensationalism and the erotic imagination, considering this intersection as it functions both as a source of social control and as a site for the development of alternative sexual identities. We will evaluate overlapping discourses of eroticism, morality, and public health as they shape representations of sex and sexuality, and will also devote particular attention to the part played by the sexual body in evolving constructions of race and gender, in emergent class identities, and in nineteenth-century political conflicts.

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2005-2006 Fall and Spring
• 2011-2012 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring

More information
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