On Tuesday, I mentioned that I’d be asking you to take a look at some speeches from early LGBTQ+ rights activists, but I think I’ll set that aside for our work together next week. (I know the Sedgwick reading is a bit dense so I don’t want to assign more reading on top of that for you today.) Instead, I have a few synthesizing questions I’d like you to discuss in small groups on Moodle to build connections between Foucault and Sedgwick:
Both Foucault and Sedgwick are laying out hypotheses in their books. Foucault’s focuses on the production of sexuality in society, while Sedgwick’s focuses more specifically on the binary of homosexual vs heterosexual desire in Western history and culture. In the chapter we’ve read, Sedgwick lays out axioms or truths as a groundwork for the tests she puts to her hypothesis later in the book in the chapters we won’t be reading this semester. (I highly recommend reading at least chapter one, “Epistemology of the Closet,” if you’re interested in reading more queer theory after this class, as it’s essential – it was just a bit too long for me to assign on top of “Axioms.”) As I mentioned in some of my introductory comments, Sedgwick’s axioms seems rather simplistic on the surface, but are more complex than they seem. For our discussion board post today, I’d like you and your group to think about a particular axiom in the context of today’s views of sexuality as well as what we learned from Foucault. Do we think the axiom itself holds up? Do we think Sedgwick’s 1990 explanation of the axiom holds up, or have circumstances changed even if the axiom hasn’t? Is it still a “truth,” or do we think that’s too lofty a term for it? If you’re not sure, explain some of the questions you have or your thinking behind your lack of surety. (It’s okay not to have a definitive answer. 🙂 ) I have some guidelines for my expectations for discussion board posts here, just FYI.
Axiom #2 Group: Kayla, Kora, Charlie, Danielle
Axiom #3 Group: Michaela, Jake, Dana
Axiom #4 Group: Teryn, Izabelle, Kristi, Ryan
Axiom #5 Group: Ken, Dean, Maria
Axiom #7 Group: Maya, Cora, Ashlee
Since I’m posting this so late, your responses won’t be due until Saturday.
Remember that for Tuesday, we’ll be reading the first half of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. See you on campus in Seay 301! 🙂
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