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Abstract/Syllabus:
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Buckle, Leonard, Renee Bergland, and Suzann Thomas-Buckle, SP.691 Studies in Women's Life Narratives: Interrogating Marriage: Case Studies in American Law and Culture, Fall 2007. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 11 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Studies in Women's Life Narratives: Interrogating Marriage: Case Studies in American Law and Culture
Fall 2007
From the marriage equality march/rally in Seattle, Washington. (Image courtesy of Michael Hanscom [djwudi].)
Course Description
Is marriage a patriarchal institution? Much feminist scholarship has characterized it that way, but now in the context of the recent Massachusetts Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, the meaning of marriage itself demands serious re-examination. This course will discuss history, literature, film, and legal scholarship, making use of cross-cultural, sociological, anthropological, and many other theoretical approaches to the marriage question from 1630 to the present. As it turns out, sex, marriage, and the family have never been stable institutions; to the contrary, they have continued to function as flash points for the very social and cultural questions that are central to gender studies scholarship.
Recommended Citation
For any use or distribution of these materials, please cite as follows:
Renee Bergland, Leonard Buckle, and Suzann Thomas-Buckle, course materials for SP.691 Studies in Women's Life Narratives: Interrogating Marriage: Case Studies in American Law and Culture, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Syllabus
Course Description
Is marriage a patriarchal institution? Much feminist scholarship has characterized it that way, but now in the context of the recent Massachusetts Supreme court decision legalizing gay marriage, the meaning of marriage itself demands serious re-examination. This course will discuss history, literature, film, and legal scholarship, making use of cross-cultural, sociological, anthropological, and many other theoretical approaches to the marriage question from 1630 to the present. As it turns out, sex, marriage, and the family have never been stable institutions; to the contrary, they have continued to function as flash points for the very social and cultural questions that are central to gender studies scholarship.
This course is taught as part of the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies.
Faculty
- Renée Bergland, Simmons College, Associate Professor of English
- Suzann Thomas-Buckle, Northeastern University, Associate Professor of Law, Policy and Society
- Leonard Buckle, Northeastern University, Associate Professor of Law, Policy and Society
Preparation
As a seminar participant, you are responsible for getting your hands on all of the materials listed in readings. All of the class materials are fairly easily accessible at the bookstore or the library. Many articles are available on various library databases: you need to find them, print them out, and bring them with you to class on the day that they are assigned.
Of course, once you've found the materials, the fun will really begin. Careful preparation for this class will entail reading the assigned readings, deciding on the central point or points, considering the various texts in conversation with each other, and formulating some opinions and question of your own. Please come to class ready to ask as many questions as you can come up with.
Discussion Leader/Scribe
Every student will lead a discussion on one text at some point during the semester. Students are required to present a bit of background information and to prepare discussion questions. Six days after the discussion (the day before the following class), the student must distribute a paper that summarizes both the background information and the key points from the discussion. The purpose of this assignment is three fold: It is an opportunity to do some focused research, to take on a leadership role in the class, and to create a record of the valuable (and often unpredictable) work of the seminar as a seminar. At the end of term, all of us will know what we have discussed, and where our discussions have led us.
Final Paper
Students are required to write thirty pages on a chosen topic, adhering to discipline appropriate scholarly conventions. The paper is due at the end of term.
Grades
Final grades in this seminar are based primarily on students' final papers and their ongoing participation in discussion throughout the term.
Recommended Citation
Renee Bergland, Leonard Buckle, and Suzanne Buckle, course materials for SP.691 Studies in Women's Life Narratives: Interrogating Marriage: Case Studies in American Law and Culture, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Calendar
Certain professors were responsible for certain weekly class sessions; please refer to the key below for their names.
RB = Renée Bergland
LB/STB = Leonard Buckle and Suzann Thomas-Buckle
Course calendar.
| WEEK # |
PROFESSORS |
TOPICS |
| 1 |
RB, LB/STB |
Welcome/Introduction: What are we talking about? |
| 2 |
RB |
Early American sex: history and culture |
| 3 |
LB/STB |
Marriage in social and legal history |
| 4 |
RB |
Narratives of seduction and abandonment (What makes American seduction and sex so very American?) |
| 5 |
LB/STB |
Law's way for bastards and their mothers |
| 6 |
RB |
Cross-racial marriage |
| 7 |
LB/STB |
Cross-racial marriage and redefined marriage (Race and marriage rethought) |
| 8 |
RB |
Intimate friendships |
| 9 |
RB |
Boston marriage |
| 10 |
LB/STB |
Gay marriage (Goodridge) |
| 11 |
LB/STB |
Same-sex marriage and beyond |
| 12 |
LB/STB |
Family and feminist futures |
| 13 |
RB, LB/STB |
Course wrap-up |
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Further Reading:
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Readings
Certain professors were responsible for certain weekly class sessions; please refer to the key below for their names.
RB = Renée Bergland
LB/STB = Leonard Buckle and Suzann Thomas-Buckle
Readings by Session
Emphasis was placed on those readings designated by an asterisk [*]. Students were asked to concentrate on these readings in particular.
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Course readings.
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WEEK #
|
PROFESSORS
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TOPICS
|
READINGS
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1
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RB, LB/STB
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Welcome/Introduction: What are we talking about?
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(no readings)
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2
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RB
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Early American sex: history and culture
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Donne, John. "Elegy XX: To His Mistress, Going to Bed."
Bradstreet, Anne. "To My Dear and Loving Husband," and "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment."
Taylor, Edward. "Huswifery," and "Upon Wedlock and Death of Children."
Godbeer, Richard. Sexual Revolution In Early America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780801868009. (Focus on part one.)
Fessenden, Tracy, Nicholas Radel, and Magdalena Zaborowska. "Introduction." In The Puritan Origins of American Sex. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000. ISBN: 9780415926409.
Dillon, Elizabeth Maddock. "Nursing Fathers and Brides of Christ: The Feminized Body of the Puritan Convert." In A Centre of Wonders: The Body in Early America. Edited by Janet Moore Lindman and Michele Lise Tarter. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780801487392.
Of interest
Foucault, Michel. Introduction to the History of Sexuality. New York, NY: Vintage, 1990. ISBN: 9780679724698.
*Lawrence v. Texas, Amicus Curiae (Historian's Brief). (PDF)#
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3
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LB/STB
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Marriage in social and legal history
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*Cott, Nancy. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002 [2000]. ISBN: 9780674008755.
Hertog, Hendrick. Man and Wife in America: A History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002 [2000]. ISBN: 9780674008113.
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4
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RB
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Narratives of seduction and abandonment (What makes American seduction and sex so very American?)
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*Rowson, Susanah. Charlotte Temple. Edited by Cathy N. Davidson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780195042382.
*Pagan, John Ruston. Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Love in Early Virginia. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780195144796.
Ulrich, Laurel Thacher. "The Serpent Beguiled Me." In Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750. New York, NY: Vintage, 1991. ISBN: 9780679732570.
Armstrong. "Why Daughters Die: The Racial Logic of American Sentimentalism." Yale Journal of Criticism 7, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 1-25.
Tennenhouse, Leonard. "The Americanization of Clarissa." The Yale Journal of Criticism 11, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 177-196.
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5
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LB/STB
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Law's way for bastards and their mothers
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Kelly, Linda. "Republican Mothers, Bastards' Fathers, and Good Victims: discarding Citizens and Equal Protection Through the Failures of Legal Images." Hastings Law Journal 51 (March 2000): 557.
Davis, Martha F. "Male Coverture: Law and the Illegitimate Family." Rutgers Law Review 56 (Fall 2003).
Kiernan, Kathleen. "Unmarried Cohabitation and Parenthood in Britain and Europe." Law and Policy 26, no. 1: 33-55.
Seltzer, Judith. "Families Formed Outside of Marriage." Journal of Marriage and Family 62, no. 4 (2000).
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6
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RB
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Cross-racial marriage
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*Child, Lydia Maria Francis. A Romance of the Republic. Louisville, KY: University of Kentucky, 1997 [1867]. ISBN: 9780813109282. The e-text is available courtesy of Project Gutenberg.
Choose one of the following to read
Sollors, Werner. Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780195128574.
Romano, Renee. Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Post-War America. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006. ISBN: 9780813029801.
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7
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LB/STB
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Cross-racial marriage and redefined marriage (Race and marriage rethought)
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*Williams, Patricia. The Rooster's Egg: On the Persistence of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997 [1995]. ISBN: 9780674779433.
"Preserving Racial Identity: Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian Americans, 1910-1950." Asian Law Journal 9 (2002).
Kiernan, Kathleen. "Redrawing the boundaries of Marriage." Journal of Marriage and Family 66 (2004): 980-987.
*Stack, Carol: All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Back Community. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1997 [1974]. ISBN: 9780061319822.
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8
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RB
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Intimate friendships
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Luxon, Thomas. "Introduction." In Single Imperfection: Milton, Marriage and Friendship. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2005, pp. 1-20. ISBN: 9780820703732.
Schweitzer, Ivy. "Smoke and Mirrors." In Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006, pp. 27-71. ISBN: 9780807857786.
Rosenberg, Carroll Smith. "The Female World of Love and Ritual." In Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780195040395.
Choose one of the following to read
Vicinus, Martha. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1776-1928. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780226855646.
Marcus, Sharon. Between Women, Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780691128351.
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9
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RB
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Boston marriage
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James, Henry. The Bostonians. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780192834423. The e-text (Vol. I and Vol. II) is available courtesy of Project Gutenberg.
Castle, Terry. "James and the specter of Lesbianism." In The Apparitional Lesbian. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780231076531.
Faderman, Lillian. "Acting 'Women' and Thinking 'Man': The Ploys of Famous Female Inverts." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 5, no. 3 (1999): 315-329.
McColley, Kathleen. "Claiming Center Stage: Speaking Out for Homoerotic Empowerment in the Bostonians." The Henry James Review 21, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 151-169.
United States Supreme Court. Lawrence v. Texas, No. 02-102, 2002.
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10
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LB/STB
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Gay marriage (Goodridge)
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Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health 440 Mass. 309, 2003.
*Gerstman, Evan. Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780521709132.
*Chauncey, George. Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today's Debate Over Gay Equality. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004. ISBN: 9780465009572.
Choose one of the following to read
Pinello, Daniel. America's Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780521848565.
Koppelman, Andrew. Same Sex, Different States: When Same Sex Marriages Cross State Lines. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780300113402.
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11
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LB/STB
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Same-sex marriage and beyond
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Eskridge, William. Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse: What We've Learned from the Evidence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195187519.
*Rosenfeld, Michael J. The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780674024977.
Polikoff, Nancy. Beyond Straight or Gay: Marriage, Valuing All Marriages Under the Law. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780807044322.
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12
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LB/STB
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Family and feminist futures
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Cherlin, Andrew. "The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage." Journal of Marriage and Family 66, no. 4 (November 2004).
Schneider, Elizabeth M. "Part 3: Implementing Feminist Lawmaking" and "Part 4: Aspirations, Limits, and Possibilities." In Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780300094114.
Stacey, Judith. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late Twentieth Century America. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1990. ISBN: 9780465007462.
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13
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RB, LB/STB
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Course wrap-up
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Alsanea, Rajaa. Girls of Riyadh. New York, NY: Penguin, 2007. ISBN: 9781594201219.
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