Hey mike, it's tough to find writing about sexuality that does not
take certain premises as given...however, for a young student still
learning the premises this may be the worst obstacle...i have found
that the early writings in queer theory and new historical criticism
(cultural poetics) to be a worthwhile source of material if only
because both schools politicize sexuality.  Nothing is taken as a
given and everything is up for questioning.

always historicize,

gary norris


>
>
>>  i'm hoping to find some help in addressing what i've
>>  found to be  a tricky bibliographical question
>>
>>  i have a first year student in an intro to film class
>>  who is just, slowly and painfully, coming to recognize
>>  that the stable sexual and gender categories he's
>>  always taken as axiomatic are much trickier than
>>  he ever dreamt, both in films and in the world
>>  that films [mis]-represent . . . so he's decided to
>>  do a major resarch paper on homosexuality
>>  in film, and has asked me for some clues about
>>  useful sources . . .
>>
>>  while there's no shortage of material out there
>>  most of it seems to me unsuitable for a combination
>>  of two reasons:  1)  the premises about sexuality
>>  that are invoked are typically taken as given --- ideas
>>  that any enlightened person already has . . . most
>>  often they are neither introduced and explained
>>  nor defended . . . and i'd rather my student not
>>  immediately get the sense that the discussion is
>>  meant only for the initiated and the already
>>  converted . . .  2) the level of discourse in virtually
>>  everything on my shelves is well beyond anything
>>  i might expect someone fresh out of a typical
>>  american high school to be able to assimilate
>>   . . .  he has, for example, tried to make sense of
>>  eve sedgwick, but with precious little success . . .
>>  and i'm not about to invite him to look at one or
>>  another lacanian influenced reading of the
>>  sexualized body . . .
>>
>>  so, are there any books --or, even better, essays -- that
>>  might be used to *begin* an exploration of homosexuality
>  > on [and, by implication, off] the screen . . . all suggestions
>  > will be very much appreciated
>  >
>  > thanks
>  >
>  > mike
>  >      [with apologies for duplication]
>  >

--
Every visible power is threatened, especially when it
rests on a usurpation that alienates both its victims
and its accomplices.  Thus the detective's tactics are
those of the minister and the Chief of State.  Power will
be shady or will not be at all. . .
     --H de Balzac, Introduction to Une tenebreuse affaire