Hist 30706 Professor Gail Bederman
Fall 2005 255 Decio
Tues. & @11:00-12:15
E-Mail: Gail.Bederman.1@nd.edu
Coleman Morse Center 330
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 12:45-2:15 or by appointment
Office Phone 631-7789
THE HISTORY OF SEX, SEXUALITY, AND GENDER In
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA AND the U.S., to 1900
Readings:
The following required books are available for purchase at the bookstore. One copy of each is also on 2 hour and overnight reserve at the library
Elizabeth Reis, ed. American Sexual Histories (Blackwell, 2001)
Ann Plane, Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England (Cornell, 2000)
Susannah Rowson, Charlotte Temple (Oxford UP, 1986; originally published 1791; other editions OK too)
Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York (Knopf, 1998)
Harriet Jacobs [Linda Brent] Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written By Herself (Originally published 1861. Any edition is OK; I ordered Dover)
Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality (Chicago, 2001)
A few copies of both of the following optional books are also available at the bookstore:
Mary Lynn Rampolla A Pocket Guide to Writing History 4th edition. (Bedford St. Martins, 2003)
Students who are not history majors are especially encouraged to purchase this book or read it in the library. It explains conventions of the discipline of history and how to write history assignments. I will schedule an optional out of class meeting to go over the information in the book.
Vincent J. Genovesi, S.J. In Pursuit of Love: Catholic Morality and Human Sexuality 2nd Edition, (Liturgical Press, 1996)
Those interested in investigating how Catholic doctrine relates to the history of sexuality are encouraged to consult this excellent theology textbook.
Although we will probably not discuss this matter in class (unless students express a particular interest) I would be delighted to hold informal discussions outside class (over pizza?) or to help you formulate topics on this subject for assigned papers.
Alternatively, you might want to use this textbook to write your papers on the topic of how historians informed by Catholic views of human sexuality ought to write the history of sexuality. You might discuss some historical event or trend we discussed in class; consider whether the history of sexuality supports or contradicts theological assumptions about of natural law, etc. These must be history papers, not theology papers, however.
Copies of all the above books are also on 2-hour/overnight reserve at the Hesburgh Library
Students are also required to read a large packet of xeroxed articles, which is available for purchase at the Copy Center 301 O’Shaughnessy Hall. These articles are marked with a “*” on the syllabus. Let me know if you would like me to put one of these packets on reserve.
We will be proceeding topically, but students who want to consult a more comprehensive overview of the history of sexuality during these years may wish to look at John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman’s Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (Harper and Row, 1988). A copy is on reserve at the Hesburgh Library.
N.B. This syllabus is an outline, not a contract. As needed, readings or topics may be added, substituted, or shifted to different days.
Course Objectives:
The main goal of this course is to teach students how to ask and answer their own questions about the history of sexuality in North America. To that end, this syllabus is designed to help students learn a number of historical skills, frameworks, and methods.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
–analyze primary source documents pertaining to gender and sexuality in light of the frameworks that historians have developed.
–identify the subject, thesis, organization, and sources used in secondary source articles; assess the strengths and weaknesses of those articles.
–write a critical, analytical essay utilizing the methodologies and vocabulary of the history of sexuality to express your own thoughts and ideas about the materials we have studied.
–formulate your own critical, analytical questions about the history of sexuality in North America, during the first 300 years of European settlement
–develop useful strategies of asking and answering your own questions about the history of sexuality in North America.
—Creative, critical thinking is the ultimate objective!
Syllabus:
N.B. Our class time will be devoted primarily to discussion, not lectures. Every student must therefore do the readings prior to class and pull her/his weight in discussions!
Week 1: Introduction: Methodology, and Sexuality in the Seventeenth Century British Colonies
Tuesday, Aug. 23 Organizational Meeting
Thursday, August 25: Discussion: What is Gender? What is Sex? What is Sexuality? T. Hall in Virginia, 1629
*Mary Beth Norton, “‘Searchers Again Assembled’: Gender Distinctions in Seventeenth-Century America” excerpted from Founding Mothers and Fathers (Knopf, 1996) reprinted in Women’s America 5th edition, (Oxford University Press, 2000) 63-72
* “Thomas or Thomasine? A Case of Transvestism in Virginia,” from H.R. McIlwaine, ed, The Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, 1622-1632, (Waddey, 1924), reprinted in Kathy Peiss, Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002) 78-80
Week 2: 17th Century New England & How to read Primary and Secondary Sources
Tuesday August 30. Discussion: How to read secondary sources:
*Richard Godbeer, “‘Chambering and Wantonising,’: Popular Sexual Mores in Seventeenth-Century New England” in Sexual Revolution in Early America (Johns Hopkins UP, 2002) 19-51
Thursday, Sept. 1 Primary and Secondary sources, continued:
Chapter 1: “Things Fearful to Name” American Sexual Histories 13-44.
Week 3: The Sexual Frontier: Europeans Encountering Native Americans
Tuesday, September 6 Interpreting European Sources on Native American Sexuality
* Gordon Sayre, “Native American Sexuality in the Eyes of the Beholders, 1535-1710” in Merril D. Smith, ed Sex and Sexuality in Early America (NYU Press, 1998) 35-54.
Richard Godbeer, “Eroticizing the Middle Ground: Anglo-Indian Relations Along the Eighteenth-century Frontier” PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A SOUTHERN FRONTIER! American Sexual Histories 46-64
Richard Godbeer, “Eroticizing the Middle Ground: Anglo-Indian Relations Along the Eighteenth-century Frontier” PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A SOUTHERN FRONTIER! American Sexual Histories 46-64
Thursday, September 8: Paper Due; We will discuss efficient ways of reading Ann Plane’s Colonial Intimacies
No new assigned reading, but bring your copy of Ann Plane’s Colonial Intimacies to class.
First Paper Due in Class, Thursday, Sept. 8
Week 4 Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England
Tuesday, Sept. 13 Discussion
Ann Plane, Colonial Intimacies, Preface, Prologue, Introduction, Chapter 1, 2 &3.
Thursday. Sept. 15 Discussion:
Ann Plane, Colonial Intimacies, Chapters 4, 5, 6 & Conclusion
Week 5 The Double Standard in the 17th & 18th Centuries
Tues. Sept. 20 The Double Standard and the Creation of Slavery?
* “Chapter 6: From ‘Foul Crimes’ to ‘Spurious Issue'” Sexual Regulation and the Social Construction of Race” in Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (U. North Carolina Press, 1996) 187-211; footnotes on 429-435.
* “The Laws of Virginia (1662, 1691, 1705)” found online 8/10/2003 at http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/divine5e/medialib/timeline/docs/sources/theme_primarysources_Slavery_1.html
Thursday Sept. 22 Changing Views of the Double Standard in 18th Century New England.
*”Chapter 4: Consensual Sex: The Eighteenth-Century Double Standard” in Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Women Before the Bar: Gender Law and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 (U. North Carolina Press: 1995) 157-230
Week 6 The Eighteenth Century, Continued
Tuesday. Sept. 27 A Case of Abortion in the mid-Eighteenth Century
* Cornelia Hughes Dayton, “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Ser. Vol. 48, No. 1 (Jan 1991) 19-49
In addition, read the indictments and depositions from the above case—online at http://oncampus.richmond.edu/~aholton/Dayton/
Thurs, Sept 29 Sexual Freedom in the late Eighteenth Century? 2 case studies: Bundling & Incest
Chapter 3: “Girling of It” American Sexual Histories 72-90
* Memoirs of Mrs. Abigail Bailey… (1815) Reprinted in Religion and Domestic Violence in Early New England, ed. Ann Taves (Indiana U. Press, 1989) 68-83
Week 7: The Seduction Novel as American Bestseller: Charlotte Temple
Tues. Oct. 4 Sensibility: Short Lecture.
If you have time, please begin reading Susannah Rowson, Charlotte Temple (1791)–Advertisement, Preface, & Book I (Pages 1-62, in the Oxford Edition.
Second Paper Due in Class, Tuesday, Oct. 4
Thurs, Oct. 6.: Charlotte Temple,
Cathy N. Davidson’s “Introduction,” “Note on the Text” and “Chronology” (xi-xxxx) in Susannah Rowson, Charlotte Temple, Oxford Edition. (On reserve for this class if you didn’t buy this version)
Finish reading the novel, Charlotte Temple.
Week 8: To the Nineteenth Century: Victorian Sexual Repression?
Tues. Oct. 11. Dating and Love in the 19th Century,
* Chapter 5: Within the Family” (1780-1900) in John B. D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (Harper & Row, 1988), 55-84; 370-75 (footnotes)
* Ellen K. Rothman, “Sex & Self Control: Middle-Class Courtship in America, 1770-1870” Journal of Social History 15:3, Spring, 1982, 409-25
Eliza W. Farrar, The Young Lady’s Friend (1836); reprinted by Arno Press, 1974; 286-299 and biographical note
Thurs. Oct.13: No Class.
Mid Semester Break, October 18-26
Week 9:
Tues. Oct. 25. Love and Marriage in the Nineteenth-Century
*Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America:” in Disorderly Conduct (Knopf, 1985) 53-76; originally published in Signs Vol. 1, No 1, 1975
*Karen Lystra, “Chapter 3: Lie Still and Think of the Empire: Sexuality in Victorian Courtship and Marriage” from Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 1989) 56-87
Thurs Oct. 27 NO CLASS: I’M AT “OUT NOW” CONFERENCE.
Begin reading Murder of Helen Jewett; I suggest you read at least 3 chapters, to page 61.
Week 10: A Sensational Murder Mystery as a Window into Nineteenth-Century Life, Gender and Sexuality
Tues. Nov. 1 Helen Jewett
Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett, Chapters 1-11 (pp. 3-217); more if possible
Thurs. Nov. 3: Helen Jewett
Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett, Chapters 12-end (pp. 218-end)
Also, read the acknowledgments, (417-420) to get a sense of what Cohen did to research this book!
Week 11: The Nineteenth Century, Continued
Tues. Nov. 8: Lecture: Demography, Birth Control and Abortion in the Early 19th century
Third Paper Due in Class, Tuesday, November 8
Thurs. Nov. 10 Two More Stories from New York State
The Psychology of Free Love” in American Sexual Histories, 93-114
Ministerial Misdeeds” in American Sexual Histories, 116-144
Week 12; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)
Tues. Nov. 15: Gender and Sexuality in the Antebellum South
Linda Brent (Harriet A. Jacobs), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself: “Preface by the Author,” “Introduction by the Editor,” and Chapters 1-19
Thurs. Nov. 17 Reading Incidents for evidence about race, gender, & sexuality in the American South
Linda Brent (Harriet A. Jacobs), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself: Chapters 19-end & Appendix.
Week 13 Race, Gender & Sexuality In the American South, II–White Women, Black Men.
Tuesday, Nov 22.
” White Women, Black, Men, and Adultery in the Antebellum South” in American Sexual Histories, 145-168
Tuesday, Nov 24: THANKSGIVING.
Week 14 Love Stories, Part 2 Changes in the “Sexual” at Century’s End?
Tuesday. Nov. 29 Lecture/Discussion Katz, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality,
Katz, Love Stories, ix-x; 3-41
Katz summarizes his argument in his conclusion, pp 331-42. It’s dense, but helpful. I suggest reading it carefully before you begin today’s reading and after you finish Thursday’s.
Thurs, Dec 1 Discussion: Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality,
Katz, Love Stories—Selected chapters, To Be Announced.
Week 15 Review and Retrospect
Tues, Dec. 6 Discussion: Last Class Day: Sex/Sexuality/Gender
Elizabeth Reis, “Introduction,” in American Sexual Histories 1-9
Fourth Paper: Due in Class, Tuesday, December 6
DUE DATE FOR FINAL EXAMINATION: Your final take-home examination is due at the date, time, and place that the university schedules for the final examination–i.e. Monday, Dec. 12 at 10:30 am, if I read the website correctly.
Assignments, Logistics, and Requirements
Written Assignments: Formal Papers
A. Four Short Essays: Students will write FOUR short (4-5 page) polished essays due on the following days.
1.Thursday, September 8:
2. Tuesday, October 4
3. Tuesday, November: 8
4. Tuesday, December 6:
Topics for these short essays will be assigned eight to ten days in advance and posted on the class website or e-mailed to the class as an attachment. You will write synthetic essays—i.e. the evidence and topic must be based on our readings for this class.
NB: Extra Credit! Students who create their own paper topic, in consultation with Professor Bederman, will get an automatic grade fraction (.33 on a 4.0 scale) added to their letter grade for that paper. I.e. if you write a B+ quality paper on a topic that you identified yourself, you would get a paper grade of A-.
The main goal for this class, you will recall, is to learn to ask and answer your own questions about the history of sex, sexuality, and gender in North America (see syllabus, page 2, above). Those who do so in their assigned papers deserve extra credit for fulfilling the goals of the class
Late paper policy: Papers are due at the beginning of the class period—i.e. 11:00 am. After that moment, unless accompanied by a verified excuse from the A&L Dean’s Office or the Office of Residence Life, they will be downgraded a fraction of a grade for each day (24 hours or fraction thereof) they are late, until I receive them. Late papers should be sent to me electronically, as an attachment, or placed in my mailbox in 219 O’Shaughnessy, with a note indicating the date and time the paper was placed in the mailbox. This inflexible policy is designed to insure fairness.
Extension Policy– NOTE DEADLINE: Extensions on any of the five short essays will be granted to any student who requests one on or before Tuesday, September 6. After that date, no extensions will be granted. I recognize that you might have other assignments or personal commitments that might make the above due dates inconvenient. On the other hand, it is up to you to plan for this eventuality in advance; by September 10, you should know the dates of projects and papers due in other classes, etc.
To obtain an extension for any of these four papers, please e-mail me at Gail.Bederman.1@nd.edu before September 6. Tell me which date(s) need an extension, and specify the date you will turn in the paper.. You may have up to one week extra. I will e-mail you back confirming that I have received your request. You need not specify why you need the extension. However I do need to hear from you by September 10. As per the policy of the University, no extensions will be granted for the take home final examination.
Of course, you are always welcome to turn in a paper early–no permission required!
B. Take Home Final Examination: This will take the form of either a 6-8 page formal essay, on a topic that incorporates our readings and discussions from over the entire course of the semester OR a small research project. More information on that will be forthcoming later in the semester.
Your final take-home examination will be due at the date, time, and place that the university schedules for the final examination—Monday, Dec. 12 at 10:30 am, if I read the website correctly.
In accordance with university regulations, no late final examinations will be accepted without a verified excuse from the Office of Residence Life or the A&L Dean’s Office.
Important!!!! At least three of the four short papers plus the final exam must be submitted for a student to pass this course.
Written Assignments: JOURNAL
Students are required to turn in seven journal entries over the course of the semester. The journals are to be turned in on Thursdays during weeks when we have substantial reading assignments (i.e. NOT the on the week that includes Thanksgiving or the last day of school. The other weeks are all fine.) They are to discuss the assigned reading for that week.
This assignment is designed to ensure that students have read and thought seriously about the week’s assignments, so that we can have useful in-class discussions. Those who turn in more than seven journal entries will receive extra credit on their overall journal grade.
Although you are encouraged to turn in a journal entry every week (except Thanksgiving and the last week of school), you are required to turn in only seven journal entries. Those who turn in additional journals will receive extra credit on their overall journal grades.
Journal entries are due at the beginning of class. Late entries may be turned in, but will be penalized somewhat
The journal should include the following:
First, the journal should include a one-sentence summary of the main argument (thesis) of each of the secondary sources assigned for that week. If it seems appropriate, you can simply quote the article’s topic sentence. (Be sure you include the page number where you found the sentence.) (Note: a different format will obtain for book-length secondary sources.),
Second, you should write a short analytical thought piece discussing some of the ideas and issues raised in that week’s reading. You might want to contrast what they say with what we read the week before. You might want to contrast how people did things in the past with today. You might want to take an author to task for shoddy scholarship or an unconvincing argument. You might want to simply ask questions that you think were raised by the assigned reading.
These thought pieces do not need to be polished: first drafts are fine. I just want to know that you have read the material, thought about it, and begun thinking about the historical issues in question before class discussion.
These thought-pieces need be no longer than about three quarters of a page, double-spaced, or the equivalent amount of (legible) handwriting. Longer is OK, but not necessary.
Please DO focus on history (the past) and on the writings assigned for that week
In writing the this thought piece, you might find it helpful to remember the three key questions we are keeping in mind in studying the history of sex, sexuality, and gender
· Exactly what do I want to know about the history of sex, sexuality, and/or gender?
· Exactly whom do I want to know this about?(Date, region; ethnicity; race; gender; class; age; religion, etc..
· Can this question be answered, using the available primary sources? If so, how? If not, how do I go about finding out as much as I can?
Verbal Assignments: Class Discussions
This class is designed as a discussion class, rather than a lecture class. Students will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss the day’s assigned readings. 20% of your grade will be based on class participation.
Grading
–Journal (7 entries @2.5% each) 17.5%
–Four short papers due on 9/8, 10/4, 11/8 and 12/6, (@10% each) 40%
–Final Examination (Take-home) 20%
–In-class discussion 22.5%
Standards for Letter Grades
A Work that goes beyond instructor’s expectations: is careful, thoughtful, original, thorough, all at once. Truly outstanding work — even for a Notre Dame student.
A- Very good work with most of the attributes of “A” work but either deficient in some technical aspect, in thoroughness and care or just not as strikingly incisive, original or creative as “A” work. Still, excellent work.
B+ Better than good competent work, even for a Notre Dame student. Good competent work with aspects that really shine or creative original work that needs more thoroughness to pin it down.
B Good competent work, which meets all requirements, the instructor could specify in advance. Reasonably thorough. Alternatively, work with some excellent aspects that are balanced by serious deficiencies.
B- Almost up to the specifiable standards. Often characterized by some vagueness and signs of lack of effort or insufficient engagement with the material. Sometimes the result of correctable misunderstanding. Talk to instructor.
C+ Below the specifiable standards for good work. Talk to instructor.
C Minimally passing work, showing serious misunderstanding or lack of effort and engagement. Talk to instructor.
C- through F Talk to instructor immediately!!
Attendance:
Attendance at all classes is mandatory. However, students may miss up to three regularly scheduled classes with no penalty. I understand that unexpected emergencies and exigencies arise.
Students who attend regularly (i.e. who do not miss more than three scheduled classes per semester) will receive the benefit of the doubt when it comes time to figure the final grade. Students who do not attend regularly will not receive the benefit of the doubt
Students who miss four or more regularly scheduled class meetings will receive a “0” for every missed class, including the first three. These “0” absence grades will be computed in their overall Class Participation Grade.
Students who miss more than one third of the 25 regularly scheduled classes (i.e. who miss 9 or more classes) may receive a final course grade of “F”.
HONOR CODE:
I support Notre Dame’s Honor Code, and expect all my students to do the same. I hereby take the Honor Pledge. “As a member of the Notre Dame community, I will not participate in nor tolerate academic dishonesty.” I expect you each to make the same commitment.
Collaboration vs. Plagiarism:
Scholarly and intellectual activity thrives on collaboration and the exchange of ideas. I have no objection to any student collaborating with other students in any way. You are encouraged to discuss ideas, paper topics, your answers, and even show one another your papers before turning them in. Collaboration with other classmates does not violate the honor code in this class, when it comes to reading, thinking, discussing your ideas, proofreading or commenting on one another’s papers before you turn them in, etc.
Plagiarism, on the other hand, is forbidden and if detected will be punished.
According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, to plagiarize means ” to steal and pass off as one’s own (the ideas or words of another): use (a created production) without crediting the source.” For more information on plagiarism, see http://www.nd.edu/~writing/resources/AvoidingPlagarism.html
Do not copy anybody else’s words or phrase or sentence or paragraph into your papers or journals unless you put quotation marks around them. Do not take phrases, sentences or paragraphs out of books or journals or off websites and copy them into your paper. Do not present anyone else’s original idea or interpretation as if you thought of it yourself. Instead, make it clear (in a footnote, parentheses, or in the text) whose idea this originally was. Sadly, over the past several years, I have received papers that committed each of these infractions. Sometimes the students didn’t even realize they were plagiarizing–hence this clarification in the syllabus.
Suspected plagiarism will be treated in accordance with the policies of the University Honor Code. www.nd.edu/~hnrcode If plagiarism is proven, this usually means at least an “F” on the paper, and often an “F” for the class.
If I suspect a paper or journal article is plagiarized, I will (among other things) submit the piece in question to “turnitin.com,” the University’s internet-based plagiarism detection service.
So do us all a favor and don’t plagiarize. Even if you’re extremely stressed– if you don’t feel you can get the work in on time without taking this kind of shortcut–if you just don’t understand the assignment, and want to get it out of your hair by copying something and turning it in–DON”T! It’s not worth the risk, the aggravation, and it’s a waste of the money you’re paying for your education. Instead come to me and explain the problem. Together, we can work through some other way to deal with whatever is getting in the way of your being able to turn in your OWN work.
Informal Conferences
All students are urged to come to my office hours at least once during the semester (preferably before mid-term) to discuss any questions or issues that have been raised by the course, to let me know how things are going, or just to check in and say hello. I really enjoy getting to know my students, so please–come see me during my office hours! If you have a class during my scheduled office hours, I’m happy to set up an appointment for another time, especially on Wednesdays, the day I devote to seeing students.