Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it… Is it that simple? Do we all approach sex and love in the same way? This course will look at documents about love and sex in a variety of contexts – from different times, in different places, by different types of people. We will be looking at a diversity of sources in order to examine what might be shared about this experience and what might be different in different contexts. Topics will include courtship, unions, sexual identity, pornography, and sex and religion.
If you are a junior or senior, this course may count as Segment 3 General Education credit in the cluster Human Sexuality: Biological, Psychological, Sociocultural, and Humanistic Aspects. It is also an upper-level division course in Europe for the History major. The only prerequisite for this course is English 214.
There are four required books that will be available at the SFSU bookstore. There are also readings that will be available on-line, through the ilearn website. Please bring the relevant book(s) to class when we discuss them. On-line readings will be available in .pdf format. These can be read with the Adobe Acrobat reader, which can be downloaded for free. When the readings are on-line, please either print out the on-line excerpt or take detailed notes on the text.
Beroul, The Romance of Tristan, trans. by Alan Fedrick, Penguin Classics edition, ISBN 0-140-44230-8
García Márquez, Gabriel, Love in the Time of Cholera, trans. by Edith Grossman, Vintage International edition, ISBN 978-0-307-38973-2
Saikaku, Ihara, The Great Mirror of Male Love, trans. by Paul Gordon Schalow, ISBN 978-0804718950
Chernoff, John, Hustling is not Stealing: Stories of an African Bar Girl, ISBN 978-0226103525
Hist 313 is a reading- and writing-intensive course. In addition to informed and enthusiastic participation in class activities, discussions, and exercises, students in the course will also complete three short essays and a group presentation to help the class review for the final. The written work will be completed at home and handed in at the start of class on the days that they are due. If the assignments are late, they will immediately lose points and will continue to drop in score the longer they are late. The course will also feature a midterm and final exam. The essays will reflect students’ analysis of the larger readings, and the exams will cover material from the topic weeks.
The course grade will be determined as follows:
Class Participation: 10%
First essay (2 – 3 pp., due 7/19): 10%
Second essay (3 – 5 pp., due 7/26): 10%
Third essay (3 – 5 pp., due 8/2): 15%
Fourth essay (2 – 3 pp., due 8/9): 20%
Group presentation (8/9 or 8/10): 10%
Final exam (8/13 and 8/14): 25%
If you are a History major and have already completed Hist 300, you may have the option to write a primary source research paper (10 – 15 pp.) in lieu of the weekly essays. You may write on sources from any time and place that you choose, but remember to keep your focus narrow. If you choose this option, you must have your topic approved by the professor by the end of the first week. You will hand in a thesis statement at the end of the second week, a first draft at the end of the third week, and the final version at the end of the fourth week. The thesis statement will count 5% toward the final grade, the first draft 15%, and the final paper 35%.
If you are a graduate student, please see the instructor to discuss the extra requirements for graduate students.
Attendance is mandatory, and will be considered in your participation grade. Class participation will make up 10% of your final grade for the course. You are encouraged to ask questions at any time and are expected to participate in any class activity, discussion, or exercise. An attendance sheet will be passed around at the beginning of every class. You must sign the sheet in order to be counted as present. If you need to arrive late, please make sure you sign in before you leave the room at the end of class. If you need to leave early, please tell the instructor at the beginning of class.
The classroom is a special environment in which students and faculty come together to promote learning and growth. It is essential to this learning environment that respect for the rights of others seeking to learn, respect for the professionalism of the instructor, and the general goals of academic freedom are maintained. Differences of viewpoint or concerns should be expressed in terms which are supportive of the learning process.