gender and sexuality

Welcome to the Library!!!

~ willougl ~ 1 Comment

Hello All! Welcome to the Library! My name is Lydia Willoughby and I am a research and education librarian at the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz.

First off, there’s a few basics about using the library to remember. You can book a group study room; we also have individual study rooms.

Beautiful New Windows!

Also, you can schedule a research consultation, you can fill out this form online and I will set up a time to meet with you. 

President Christian using the new group study rooms

Pro Tip: beat procrastination by making a clear plan of what you need to do. This assignment calculator can help you use your time efficiently.

 

Today’s Learning Goals:

  1. Identify literary criticism about the Victorian era that you can use to enhance your comprehension and analysis of literature, gender and sexuality
  2. Find 19th Century essays and newspaper articles pertaining to gender and sexuality that provide contemporary context to history and culture
  3. “Research”
    1. How to search: choosing and modifying search terms
    2. How to find articles
    3. How to use one article to find other sources

 

Think Before You Act

  • Open this document: ENG451SwaffordSpring16LibraryWorksheet – .docx
  • Let’s start with a discussion and brainstorm. Write down some search term ideas that you have about your topic. Put these in the brainstorm areas, the first table on the worksheet.
  • Turn to your neighbor and talk about what you both wrote. Listen to them, and tell them what you think that their topic is about.
  • Then, after discussing with your neighbor, write down one question or hypothesis that you have about your topic. Read this back to your neighbor and see if they agree. Listen to your neighbor.

Topic Exploration

  • Take your text or literary criticism and scan the text for keywords that you can use to generate search terms.

Where to Find Articles on Victorian Literary Criticism

Where to Find Victorian Newspapers

Cited Reference Searching AKA “How do I find more good stuff”?

Even More!

Research Activities:

  1. Brainstorm
  2. Topic Exploration
  3. Find Articles
  4. Find Newspapers
  5. Cited Reference Searching

ENG451SwaffordSpring16LibraryWorksheet – .docx

ENG451SwaffordSpring16LibraryWorksheet – .pdf

Thank you!!! Please take the last few moments of class to write a comment on this blog post about something that you found useful that you learned today.  You might also write a question that you have about research or finding sources and using databases.

Feel free to email me with research questions directly at willougl at newpaltz dot edu. You can ALWAYS ask a librarian, too! Thanks!

 

The sexuality of Basil

~ Rachel W. ~ Leave a comment

While in class we talked mostly about how the descriptions of Dorian and Lord Henry point to their homosexual desires, we did not speak as much about the descriptions of Basil who, is the mostly clearly homosexual character out of all the others.  He openly reveals his romantic desire when he tells Dorian in chapter 7: “I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling that a man usually gives to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time” (70).  Dorian’s physical features as a boyish, his musical talent, characterize him as an invert, what men with same-sex attraction were called by sexologists, as well as his relationship to Lord Henry.  The relationship between Lord Henry and Dorian, older man as mentor and younger man as mentee, reflect the homosexual relationships of the Greek Dorians. Lord Henry Wotton’s voice is described as musical as well. They never reveal outright their feelings towards each other or towards other men, Basil is the only one that does so. Subtle hints are not needed to inform the reader of his sexuality.   It is in this passage on page 70 that Basil’s innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed to the reader and by John Addington Symonds standards he would be considered an “urning,” not just a man with same-sex desire, but a very feminine individual. Symonds writes,

The body of a male is visible to the eyes, is mensurable and ponderable, is clearly marked in its specific organs. But what we call his soul–his passions, inclinations, sensibilities, emotional characteristics, sexual desires–eludes the observation of the senses. . . . And when I find that the soul, this element of instinct and emotion and desire existing in a male, had been directed in its sexual appetite from earliest boyhood towards persons of the male sex, I have the right to qualify it with the attribute of femininity.”

The fact that Basil has such feelings for Dorian is enough to qualify him as a feminine man, or as having a feminine soul.

Bibliography

Symonds, John Addington. A Problem in Modern Ethics. 1896

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1890. Ed. Michael Wilson. Watersgreen House Classics. 2015.