Prof. Michael Goldberg
Spring 1999
Room 125
Office phone: 352-5362
email: mlg@u.washington.edu
BLS 418: Masculinity in American Culture ,
Homoeroticism, and Queer Theory in American Culture
Course goals and expectations
In the past 30 years, feminist scholars have helped us to understand the ways cultures construct
ideas and assumptions about gender. For most of this time, feminist scholars concentrated on
concerns about women, or considered men in relation to these concerns. In the last 10 years,
however, feminist scholars have begun to consider the way masculinity is constructed. At the
same time, men wishing to view masculinity from a male perspective developed "critical men's
studies" (to differentiate their work from past scholarship which had almost uniformly taken
men as the norm, but had not examined them critically), which was in part inspired by feminism
and in part a reaction against it. Finally, the rise of gay and lesbian studies (which owed its
academic and political sensibilities in part to feminist studies and in part to gay liberation
movements) has challenged the heterocentrist focus on "straight"/"normal" men and
complicated our understanding of sexual identities. This course draws on some of these insights
to consider how images of masculinity are represented in American film and literature. We will
apply these theoretical insights to our critical readings of particular texts in order to help us
understand the underlying and often contradictory assumptions contained in images of
masculinity. As the course title indicates, we will pay special attention to the way masculinity
is constructed in relation to other men. While we will be paying some attention to historical
processes, we will mainly be considering these texts as part of the "modern hegemonic sexual
regime," in George Chauncy's words, which "consolidated and enforced a hetero-homosexual
binarism." This course seeks to look beyond the rigidly constructed concepts of "straight" and
"gay," "male" and "female" to consider the complicated and often messy ways that masculinity
is represented in cultural texts.
Course Requirements
1) Participation (20% of grade)
A) Participation in class discussion. Although I will give short lectures, your informed
participation is crucial to the success of the course. In order to be properly prepared for class,
you will need to take notes while reading and viewing. Your notes from the first two weeks of
reading should focus on the analysis, rather than on content (this is particularly true for Gay
New York.) For the literature, you should note your observations and interpretive ideas as you
read. During the movie, note key scenes, bits of dialogue, significant technical analysis, and
interpretive ideas. Bring all texts to be discussed to class, along with your notes. Your notes
will be due in class the day of the final, and will be graded excellent, good, or unsatisfactory,
based on the diligence demonstrated in taking the notes. Do not dress them up in a fancy folder,
correct grammar or spelling, or type them (unless you normally type your notes). Simply submit
them as is.
B) Minimum participation grade. You can't participate if you are not in class. You
may miss one class without penalty. Additional absences will count against your participation
grade. (Remember that we only have nine class meetings after the first day of class.) If an
emergency comes up that will require you to miss more than one class, please let me know as
soon as possible.
C) Participation in the class newsgroup. You must post at least one message on the
class electronic newsgroup (uwash.class.bls418) each week by the start of class on Friday. The
postings should be carefully thought out, clearly written, and should either initiate a topic or
offer a reasoned response to an ongoing discussion in the newsgroup. The posting must deal
with the texts from the course in some way, although you may also include outside texts/events,
etc. Do not simply write that a particular passage or scene was "interesting" or "confusing."
Instead, you should work out what you thought was interesting or why it was confusing and
what questions it raised. I will let you know if a comment does not count towards the
participation grade. Since this is not a course in aesthetics, your posting should not be about
whether you like a film or novel, but what your interpretation of the text was. You are also
encouraged to participate in the newsgroup on an ongoing basis—additional thoughtful postings
will add to your participation grade, although you will not be penalized for less than three
postings. The newsgroup is a good place to work out ideas for your essays and to become
comfortable with the theoretical and interpretive concepts of the course.
2) Four one-page response papers (25% of grade) focusing on one critical issue from
the readings that week. I will hand out examples of essays that I consider to be particularly
effective. The fourth paper should be used to explore issues you plan to raise in your final
paper.
3) 5-7 page paper using a theoretical concept from the course to interpret a film or
novel from the course (25% of grade). This assignment will give you a sense of your level of
achievement in relation to the course's intended outcomes. I encourage you to read my
comments carefully and discuss with me any comments that need further clarification or
additional examples.
4) 7-10 page paper focusing on at least 3 texts (at least one of them a novel and film)
and which addresses at least one of the themes raised in the course. (30% of grade)
Books (available at UW Bothell University Bookstore)
George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male
World, 1890-1940
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Earnest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Edmund White, A Boy’s Own Story
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
Walter Mosley, Devil With a Blue Dress
Optional: Stephen Price, Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film (highly recommended
for students with no experience in film analysis)
Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are on reserve at the library.
Syllabus
Week 1 Introduction: Masculinities in Textual Representations
Film: Love and Death on Long Island
Week 2 Power, Performative Genders, and Stressed Manhood
*Michael Kimmell, selection from Manhood in America: A Cultural History (“Introduction”)
*David D. Gilmore, selections from Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of
Masculinity (“The Manhood Puzzle,” “Conclusion”)
*Alexander Doty, selection from Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture (“
What Makes Queerness Most?”)
* Tanya Modleski, selection from Feminism sWithout Men: Culture and Criticism in a
“Postfeminist Age (“A Father Is Being Beaten”)
Film: Top Gun
Week 3 Rethinking "Normal" and "Queer"
Chauncey, Gay New York, Introduction, Part I, Part III, Epilogue
Film: Midnight Cowboy
Week 4 The Hard-Boiled, the Straight, and the Queer
Chandler, The Big Sleep
Film: Dirty Harry
Week 5 Hard-Boiled Revisited: A Different Shade of Noir
Mosley, Devil With a Blue Dress
Film: Shaft
Week 6 Once We Were Warriors
Silko, Ceremony
Film: Pow Wow Highway
Week 7 Re-Centering the Margins
Film: To Sleep With Anger
Paper due
Week 8 Re-Presenting Homosexuality
White, A Boy’s Own Story
Film: Philadelphia
Week 9 Eros Re-visited
Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Film: Red River
Week 10 Male Masochism in Corporate America
*John Cheever, "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill": "The Swimmer"
*Barbara Ehrenreich, selection from The Hearts of Men
Film: The Apartment
Week 11 Final Paper due