COM606-Schools for Scandal: Sexual Fictions from Venus in the Cloister to Venus in Furs-2023/24

This module explores a range of erotic, libertine and pornographic texts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. It includes so-called 'whore dialogues' (The School of Venus and Venus in the Cloister), best-selling novels (Fanny Hill, and Thérèse the philosopher), and well-known works by the Marquis de Sade and Sacher-Masoch. It will examine the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality are represented within these and other texts from the period, and explore past and present constructions of pornography and literature. Warning: this module contains sexually explicit material.