Spring 2001 (second half)

SYLLABUS (Draft : December, 2000)

The Politics of Gender and Sexuality :

French - American Comparisons

Éric FASSIN

Département de sciences sociales, École normale supérieure, Paris

Visiting Professor, Institute of French Studies (N.Y.U.)

The class meets twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:20 to 8:50 pm, starting Tuesday, March 20, until Tuesday, May 1. Unfortunately, due to my absence, two sessions (April 17 and 19) will be cancelled, and rescheduled in agreement with all the students enrolled in the class (e.g., one on Thursday, May 3).

N.B. : This course is taught in English, but some of the readings may only be available in French.

Work requirements :

1. Readings in preparation for each session.

2. Active participation in class discussions.

3. An oral presentation (of either required or additional readings).

4. A written examination (Friday, May 4 : date TBC) : 25% of the final grade.

5. A research paper (10 to 20 pages) ; topic to be defined by mid-April (please hand in a one-page description and bibliography) : 50% of the final grade.

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The politics of gender and sexuality are sometimes studied regardless of national context, at the risk of implicitly universalizing specific national experiences, or sometimes, on the contrary, with explicit emphasis on national culture, at the risk of culturalizing experiences that may have nothing specific. The purpose of this course is to make systematic use of comparisons between France and the United States — not only because this might correspond to the interests of American students of France, but also because this comparison plays a historical role, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first section of the course will be devoted to discussions of French and American democratic cultures, in so far as both are defined not only in abstract terms of universality, but also through gender and sexuality, in a double logic of inclusion and exclusion.

The second section will concentrate on the analysis of order and disorder, both at home and at work, from the New Woman to reactions against this sexual modernity, through the control of reproduction and homosexuality.

The third section of the course will address contemporary politics of feminism and homosexuality, both in France and in the United States, from 1970s feminism to the contrast between the E.R.A. and “parité”, and the parallel debates on same-sex unions. Finally, the fourth section will focus on the concepts at work throughout the course — analyzing their theoretical and political meanings in historical context, i.e. in their contemporary French and American national settings : difference and domination, gender and sexuality.

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Democratic cultures

1. Nation

Readings :

Mona Ozouf, “Essai sur la singularité française”, Les mots des femmes (Fayard, 1995).

Joan W. Scott, Only Paradoxes to Offer (Harvard U.P., 1996).

Additional readings :

“Femmes : une singularité française ?”, Le Débat, 87, Nov.-Dec. 1995.

Éric Fassin, “The Purloined Gender : American Feminism in a French Mirror”, French Historical Studies, 22,1, 1999.

2. Citizenship

Readings :

Pierre Rosanvallon, Le sacre du citoyen (Gallimard, 1992).

Linda K. Kerber, No constitutional right to be ladies (Hill & Wang, 1998).

Additional readings :

Geneviève Fraisse, Muse de la raison (Gallimard, 1995 [1989]).

Lynn Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (U. of California P., 1992).

3. Race

Readings :

Martha E. Hodes, ed., Sex, Love, Race (New York U. P., 1999).

Julia A. Clancy-Smith and Frances Gouda, eds., Domesticating the Empire (U. of Virginia P., 1998).

Additional readings :

Candice Bredbenner, A Nationality of her Own (U. of California P., 1998).

Colette Guillaumin, Sexe, Race et Pratique du Pouvoir (Côté-femmes, 1992).

Order and Disorder

4. The New Woman

Readings :

Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “The New Woman as Androgyne”, Disorderly Conduct (Oxford U.P., 1985).

Annelise Maugue, “L’Ève nouvelle et le vieil Adam”, Chapter 19, Histoire des femmes, Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot eds., vol. 4, Geneviève Fraisse and Michelle Perrot eds. (Plon, 1991).

Mary-Louise Roberts, Civilization Without Sexes (U. of Chicago P., 1994).

Additional readings :

Christine Bard, ed., Un siècle d’antiféminisme (Fayard, 1999).

Robert A. Nye, Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France (Oxford U.P., 1993).

5. Interwar homosexuality

Readings :

George Chauncey, Gay New York , 1890-1940 (Basic, 1994)

Florence Tamagne, Histoire de l’homosexualité en Europe, 1919-39 (Seuil, 2000).

Additional readings :

Didier Eribon, Réflexions sur la question gay (Fayard, 1999).

Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics & Society (Longman, 1989 [1981]).

6. Women and Reproduction

Readings :

Francine Muel-Dreyfus, Vichy et l’éternel féminin (Seuil, 1996).

Rosalind Petchesky, Abortion and Woman’s Choice(Northeastern U.P., 1990 [1984]).

Additional readings :

Faye D. Ginsburg, Contested Lives (U. of California P., 1998 [1989]).

Susan F. Harding, The Book of Jerry Falwell (Princeton U.P., 2000)

7. Women and Production

Readings :

Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work (Oxford U.P., 1983).

Rose-Marie Lagrave, “Une émancipation sous tutelle”, Chapter 15, Histoire des femmes, Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot eds., vol. 5, Françoise Thébaud ed. (Plon, 1992).

Additional readings :

Margaret Maruani, ed., Les nouvelles frontières de l’inégalité (La Découverte, 1998).

Tania Angeloff, Le temps partiel, un marché de dupes ? (Syros, 2000).

Politics

8. Feminists and Lesbians

Readings :

Françoise Picq, Libération des femmes. Les années-mouvement (Seuil, 1993).

Alice Echols, Daring to be Bad. Radical Feminism in America (U. of Minn. P., 1989).

Additional reading :

Christine Delphy, L’ennemi principal. 1 (Syllepse, 1998).

9. Parité and E.R.A.

Readings :

Jane J. Mansbridge, Why We Lost the ERA (U. of Chicago P., 1986).

Philippe Bataille and Françoise Gaspard, Comment les femmes changent la politique (La Découverte, 1999).

Additional reading :

Éric Fassin and Michel Feher, “Parité et PaCS : anatomie politique d’un rapport”, Au-delà du PaCS, Daniel Borrillo, Éric Fassin, Marcela Iacub, eds. (PUF, 1999).

10. PaCS and same-sex marriage

Readings :

Andrew Sullivan, ed., Same-Sex Marriage : Pro and Con (Vintage, 1997).

“Mariage, union et filiation”, Le Banquet, 12-13, Sept.- Oct. 1998.

Éric Fassin, “Le mariage des homosexuels : politique comparée des normes franco-américaines”, French Politics, Culture and Society, 17, 3-4, Summer - Fall 1999.

Additional reading :

Michael Warner, The Trouble With Normal (Harvard U.P., 1999).

Concepts

11. Difference

Readings :

Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds., Woman, Culture & Society (Stanford U.P., 1974).

Sherry Ortner, “So, Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture ?”, Making Gender (Beacon, 1997).

Françoise Héritier, Masculin / Féminin. La pensée de la différence (Odile Jacob, 1996).

Additional reading :

Claude Lévi-Strauss, “La famille”, Le regard éloigné (Plon, 1983).

12. Domination

Readings :

Pierre Bourdieu, La domination masculine (Seuil, 1998).

Catharine MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Harvard U.P., 1989).

Additional reading :

Nicole-Claude Mathieu, “Quand céder n’est pas consentir”, L’anatomie politique (Côté-femmes, 1991).

13. Gender and Sexuality

Readings :

Gayle Rubin, “The Traffic in Women”, Toward an Anthropology of Women, Rayna R. Reiter, ed. (Monthly Review, 1975).

Nicole-Claude Mathieu, “Identité sexuelle / sexuée / de sexe ?”, L’anatomie politique (Côté-femmes, 1991).

Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Preface”, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Harvard U.P., 1989).

Gayle Rubin, ““Thinking Sex : Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”, Pleasure and Danger, Exploring Female Sexuality, Carole S. Vance ed. (Pandora Press, 1992 [1984])

Additional reading :

Joan W. Scott, “Gender : A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia U.P., 1988).