Sadly, we are living through a period where the banning of books has become commonplace, often “justified” by the offending books’ portrayals of love, sexuality, and gender, which are labeled "immoral." As such, our own day and age invites us to revisit and rethink works of literature that were deemed scandalous at the time of their publication, sometimes even leading to the criminal prosecution of their authors. This course will examine two novels – Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray – paying close attention to how they portray loving relationships between humans. It will interrogate those loving relationships, investigate how they were transgressive in the eyes of contemporaries, and situate them in their historical context, showing how they were part and parcel of a broader European quest for social and political freedom in the modern era. This course is being offered during Summer Session B (8/3 - 9/11), and it will meet from 2:00pm to 3:05pm in ILP 4101.
This course can be used for the following GE Areas:
Area E: Culture and Thought
Special Subject Areas: Writing, European Traditions