| Instructor: Dr Kenneth
Chan |
Introduction
This module will examine theories and representations of
masculinity in order to understand how masculine identity is
inflected by culture, history, race, class, sexuality,
politics, and human genetics. By analyzing contemporary film,
literature, and political and scientific writings, students
will encounter masculinity's intersection with issues as
varied as whiteness, colonialism and imperialism, racism and
racial discourse, feminism, AIDS research, genetics,
body-building, coolness, camp, gender-bending and drag
culture, fashion, national identity, war, and computer
technology. I have strategically used the plural form
"masculinities" firstly to suggest the ideological layering of
"masculinity" as a category, and secondly to begin to
conceptualize alternative possibilities for thinking and
mobilizing the masculine. It is critical for students to
understand that this module on masculinities is not targeted
towards a specifically male classroom. As Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick puts it, "When something is about masculinity, it is
not always 'about men.'" Hence, this module is meant for
everyone; for the study of masculinity intends to help us
rethink, as a critical goal, our inherited understandings of
gender and sexuality.
Objectives
The primary objective of this module is to help students
acquire writing and critical thinking skills that will enable
them to function effectively and productively in the
intellectual environment of the university. The academic
essay, which constitutes the main genre that we will learn to
write to achieve this goal, provides students with
transferable writing skills they can bring to their different
disciplines. The academic essay also lends itself efficiently
to the acquisition of critical thinking practices as it offers
students an opportunity to hone their skills of argumentation,
rhetorical organization, and persuasion. Hence, we will be
writing three essays of progressive length, each developing
various aspects of the academic writing process such as close
reading, textual analysis and interpretation, deployment of
sources, and research incorporation. (Though grammar, syntax,
and format are crucial in these writing exercises--issues that
we will also pay attention to, our main emphasis is on
argumentation and rhetoric.) To further enhance the learning
process, there will be instructor-student conferences,
multiple drafts of each essay, class presentations, peer
reviews, class discussions, and IVLE forums and discussions.
These activities also seek to demonstrate the social nature of
writing that transcends the individual production of ideas,
for the writing of essays is a means of entering into on-going
scholarly debates and dialogue on various issues, in our case
that of masculinity. Hence, this turns writing into an
exciting activity, particularly in its ability to transform
what is often perceived as "mundane" student assignments into
lively engagements with the "real" world and its relevant and
immediate concerns.
Required Texts
Readings:
Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference. (4th Edition)
Hornby, Nick. High Fidelity. London: Penguin,
1995.
Selvadurai, Shyam. Funny Boy. London: Vintage,
1994.
Other selected readings:
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the
Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
(Pages TBA).
Chow, Rey. Ethics After Idealism:
Theory-Culture-Ethnicity-Reading. Bloomington: Indiana
UP, 1998. 74-97.
Dyer, Richard. White. London: Routledge, 1997.
1-40; 145-183.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Vol. I: An
Introduction. New York: Vintage, 1978. 1-49.
Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and
Cultural Anxiety. Routledge: New York: 1992. 1-17.
Heng, Ivan, and Cheowee Leow. An Occasional
Orchid. Personal copy of original manuscript.
Kam, Louie. Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society
and Gender in China. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
(Pages TBA).
Kaplan, E. Ann. "Is the Gaze Male?" Feminism and
Film. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.
119-138.
Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, and Simon Watson, eds.
Constructing Masculinity. New York: Routledge, 1995.
11-20; 98-106; 127-166.
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema."Feminism and Film. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2000. 34-47.
Films:
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Stephan Elliot
Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee
Falling Down, Joel Schumacher
Farewell My Concubine, Chen Kaige
Forever Fever, Glenn Goei
Scent of a Woman, Martin Brest
Three Kings, David O. Russell
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