WordPress.com



-45720000002514600Gender, Sexuality and the Bible00Gender, Sexuality and the BibleRT3520Semester 1 (2017/18)Check your timetable for time and room detailsAssessmentsWeek 11: Formative Oral Exam PracticeWeek 12: Oral ExamModule LeaderDr Marika Rosemarika.rose@winchester.ac.ukOffice hours: MC201Thursday: 15:00–17:00This module will introduce the range and complexity of the Bible’s approach(es) to sex and relationships, surveying key texts around issues such as the creation and reproduction of gender norms, sex work, sexual violence, bodily fluids and same sex relationships. The module will on the one hand seek to help you situate the Bible’s approach to such issues within its original historical milieu and, on the other, will use contemporary academic discourse on sexuality to enable you to reflect critically on the way the Bible is deployed in contemporary discussions around these issues. Each weekly class will focus on a particular theme related to gender and/or sexuality throughout the Bible as a whole, while our advanced seminars will explore these issues in depth in relation to the Song of Songs in particular. LEARNING OUTCOMESBy the conclusion of this semester module a student will be expected to be able to: demonstrate a systematic understanding of key issues, themes and traditions in the study of the Bible’s relationship with sex/uality and gender that is informed by recent developments in research and which appreciates the limits of academic knowledge. Deploy established techniques of analysis independently and accurately in order to devise and sustain arguments and to comment upon aspects of current research relating to the interaction of the Bible and ideas about sex and gender.Utilise independently a range of academic materials to critically evaluate arguments, assumptions and concepts, framing appropriate questions, identifying solutions and communicating findings effectively. ASSESSMENTSThis module will be assessed by oral exam. You will be asked to present a 1000 word piece arguing for or against a particular reading of the themes of gender and/or sexuality in relation to a biblical text we have looked at over the course of the semester. The oral exam will then ask you to defend that reading against sustained questioning..As part of the formative work for the class, each week different students will be assigned to present position papers responding to that week’s required reading, to answer questions following their presentation, and to lead discussion. You will be given a chance to give each other feedback on these presentations to help you develop your presentation skills and understand what will be expected of you in the oral exam. In the final class of the semester you will be given an opportunity to present a first draft of your final presentation to your fellow studentsAssessmentDue: Oral exams will take place in Week 12.Assessment Type: Oral ExamWord Length: 1000 word presentation plus discussion.Percentage: 100You will be asked to present a 1000 word paper arguing for or against a particular reading of issues of gender and/or sexuality in relation to a biblical text we have looked at over the course of the semester. You will then be asked to defend that reading against sustained questioning.Due date for assessment to be returned to student with feedback: 18/01/18Marking criteria can also be found, listed by level, in the Programme Handbook.LECTURE OVERVIEWWEEK 1: Introducing the Bible, Gender and SexualityWEEK 2: Creating Gender: Eve and Her DaughtersWEEK 2 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Introducing the Song of SongsWEEK 3: Reproducing Gender: Abraham and His SonsWEEK 4: Troubling Gender: Bodily FluidsWEEK 4 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Feminist Readings of the Song of SongsWEEK 5: Questioning Binary GenderWEEK 6: Homosexuality? Sodom and LeviticusWEEK 6 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Constructing Gender in the Song of SongsWEEK 7: Homosexuality? Sinners and Lovers WEEK 7 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Queering the Song of SongsWEEK 8: ALTERNATIVE ENRICHMENT WEEK WEEK 9: MarriageWEEK 10: The Bible and Sexual ViolenceWEEK 10 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Troubling Desire in the Song of SongsWEEK 11: Sex Work and the BibleWEEK 12: Oral examsTOPIC LISTWEEK 1. Introducing Gender, Sexuality and the Bible Each week we will use the first half of class as a seminar to discuss the set readings for the week, and the second half of class a lecture where we will introduce some key ideas and questions to guide our reading of the next week’s readings. This week, we will use our seminar to explore some of the basic questions that will shape the course as a whole: what are we talking about when we talk about gender and sexuality? How can and should contemporary ideas about gender and sexuality shape the way we read the Bible, and how can and should the Bible shape contemporary ideas about gender and sexuality? In the second half of the class we will look at some of the ways that our ideas about gender difference have changed between the period in which the Hebrew Bible was written and the present day.Required ReadingAlthaus-Reid, Marcella, ‘Kneeling: deviant theologians’ in The Queer God (London: Routledge, 2003), 5-22.Martin, Dale, ‘Introduction: The Myth of Textual Agency’ in Sex and the Single Savior (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 1-16.WEEK 2. Creating Gender: Adam and EveIn this week’s seminar we will be discussing the set readings about gender and the biblical creation myths. What do the first few chapters of Genesis tell us about ideas about gender in the ancient world, and how can or should we use these passages in thinking about gender today? In the lecture, we will consider the role of reproduction – both biological and social – in sustaining gendered ideas and practices in ancient and contemporary societies. Required ReadingGenesis 1-3 (Each week’s required reading for the rest of the course will include particular Bible passages. You should use the New Revised Standard Version translation, which is available free online at bible.).Trible, Phyllis, ‘Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Re-Read’ in Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 74-83.Meyers, Carol, ‘Gender Roles and Genesis 3:16’ in A Feminist Companion to Genesis, edited by Athalya Brenner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 118-141.Further ReadingBach, Alice, ‘Man’s World, Women’s Place: Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible’ in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader edited by Alice Bach (London: Routledge, 1998), xiii-xxvi.Laqueur, Thomas, ‘Of Language and the Flesh’ in Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Genesis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 1-24.WEEK 2 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Introducing the Song of SongsIn this advanced seminar we will discuss the set readings for the week, and consider some of the major ways in which discussions about the interpretation of this biblical book have reflected and influenced debates about gender, sexuality and the Bible. Required ReadingThe Song of Songs (New Revised Standard Version translation)Clines, David, ‘Why Is There a Song of Songs and What Does It Do to You If You Read It?’ in Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 94-121.WEEK 3. Reproducing Gender: Abraham and his SonsIn this week’s seminar we will discuss the set reading and what it tells us about the relationship between gender and reproduction. How are ideas about gender passed on from one generation to another? What role does gender play in reproducing not only individual human beings but also social norms and practices? In the lecture, we will consider the role of bodily fluids – especially semen and menstrual blood – in shaping our ideas about bodies, gender, and society. Why are bodily fluids a source of anxiety or disgust?Required ReadingGenesis 12, 15-17, 20-22.Delaney, Carol ‘Abraham and the Seeds of Patriarchy’ in A Feminist Companion to Genesis, edited by Athalya Brenner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 129-149.Trible, Phyllis ‘The Sacrifice of Sarah’ in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader edited by Alice Bach (London: Routledge, 1998), 271-291.Further Reading‘What the f**k is social reproduction? An Introduction by Plan C’ Fuchs, Esther, ‘The Literary Characterization of Mothers and Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible’ in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader edited by Alice Bach (London: Routledge, 1998), 127-140.Meyers, Carol, ‘Women and the Domestic Economy of Early Israel’ in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader edited by Alice Bach (London: Routledge, 1998), 33-44.Williams, Delores S, ‘Hagar in African American Appropriation’ in Hagar, Sarah and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives, edited by Phyllis Trible and Letty M Russell (Louisville: Westminster John Know Press, 2006), 171-184.WEEK 4. Troubling Gender: Bodily Fluids In this week’s seminar we will discuss the set readings on gender, bodily fluids, and the politics of purity. Does the leakiness of bodies matter for thinking about gender? In the lecture, we will consider the different ways in which gender has been located in bodies, and the ways that the links between gender, sex and embodiment have been thrown into question by people whose bodies and identities transgress existing categories of gender.Required ReadingLeviticus 11-15.Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard, ‘Menstrual Blood, Semen and Discharge’ in The Savage in Judaism” An Anthropology of Israelite Religion and Ancient Judaism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 177-194.Adler, Rachel, ‘Tumah and Taharah: Ends and Beginnings’ in Response 18 (1973), 117-127.Adler, Rachel, ‘In Your Blood, Live’: Re-visions of a Theology of Purity’ in Tikkun 8.1 (1993), 38-41. Further ReadingDouglas, Mary ‘Introduction’, ‘Secular Defilement’ and ‘The Abominations of Leviticus’ in Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge, 2002), 1-7, 36-71.Grosz, ‘Sexed Bodies’ in Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 187-211.Kristeva, Julia, ‘Semiotics of Biblical Abomination’ in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, translated by Leon S Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), 90-112.WEEK 4 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Feminist Readings of the Song of SongsIn this advanced seminar we will discuss the required reading. How persuasive are the classic feminist readings of the Song of Songs? What are the strengths and weaknesses of feminist approaches to the text?Required ReadingTrible, Phyllis, ‘Love’s Lyrics Redeemed’ in A Feminist Companion to the Song of Songs, edited by Athalya Brenner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 100-120.Exum, J. Cheryl, ‘Ten Things Every Feminist Should Know about the Song of Songs’ in A Feminist Companion to the Song of Songs, edited by Athalya Brenner and Carole R. Fontaine (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 24-35.WEEK 5. Questioning Gender: Intersex and Trans Readings of the BibleIn this week’s seminar we will discuss the required readings on intersex and trans readings of the Bible. What does the Bible have to say about eunuchs and the creation of gender difference, and what does it look like to engage these texts in the context of contemporary questions about trans and intersex identities? In the lecture we will begin to explore the history of changing ideas about same-sex relationships. When was ‘homosexuality’ invented, and what happens when we read Biblical texts about same-sex sex in light of contemporary categories of gender and sexual identity? Required ReadingGenesis 1-3; Deuteronomy 23:1-14; Isaiah 56:1-12; Matthew 19:1-12; Acts 8:26-40.Guest, Deryn, ‘Troubling the Waters: ???????, Transgender and Reading Genesis Backwards’ in Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation, edited by Teresa J Hornsby and Deryn Guest (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016), 21-44.Marchal, Joseph A, ‘Who Are You Calling a Eunuch?! Staging Conversations and Connections between Feminist and Queer Biblical Studies and Intersex Advocacy’ in Intersex, Theology and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text and Society, edited by Susannah Cornwall (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), 29-54.Further ReadingPreves, Sharon E, ‘Sexing the Intersexed: An Analysis of Sociocultural Responses to Intersexuality’ in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 27.2 (2001), 523-556.Stone, Sandy, ‘The “Empire” Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto’ Stryker, Susan, ‘Transgender Studies: Queer Theory’s Evil Twin’ in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 10.2 (2004), 212-215.WEEK 6. Homosexuality? Sodom and LeviticusIn this session we spend the seminar discussing the set reading and consider what (if anything) the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and the purity codes of Leviticus can tell us about attitudes to same-sex sex in the ancient world and how we might read them today in the light of contemporary attitudes to same-sex sex. In the lecture we will focus on attitudes to same-sex sex in the Greco-Roman world, and how these ideas shaped the context in which the New Testament texts were written. Required ReadingGenesis 18-19; Leviticus 18-20.Olyan, Saul M, “’And With a Male You Shall Not Lie the Lying Down of a Woman’: On the Meaning and Significance of Lev 18:22 and 20:13” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 5.2 (1994), 179-206.Boswell, John ‘The Scriptures’ in Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 91-106.Nissinen, Martti, ‘The Holiness Code: Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13’ and ‘Sodom: Genesis 19:1-11’ in Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 37-48.Further ReadingFoucault, Michel, ‘We “Other Victorians”’ and ‘The Repressive Hypothesis’ in A History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Volume 1 (London: Penguin, 1990), 1-47.Nissinen, Martti, ‘Mesopotamia’ and ‘The Hebrew Bible’ in Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 19-56.WEEK 6 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Constructing Gender in the Song of SongsIn this advanced seminar we will discuss the required reading texts, which focus on the ways in which ideas of gender and gender roles emerge in the Song of Songs through imagery and metaphor.Required ReadingExum, J. Cheryl, ‘Gendered Love-Talk and the Relation of the Sexes’ in Song of Songs: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 13-27.Meredith, Christopher ‘The Lattice and the Looking Glass: Gendered Space in Song of Songs 2:8-14’ in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80.2 (2012), 365-386.WEEK 7. Homosexuality? Sinners and LoversIn this session we will discuss the set reading for this week, which explores the possibility of same-sex sexuality in the gospel narratives of Jesus’ life and considers the different factors at work in recent debates over precisely what kind of sins St Paul condemns in his letters. In the lecture we will consider the nature of marriage. What kind of an institution is marriage, and what purposes does it serve in different historical contexts? How is marriage used as a metaphor for other types of social relationships?Required ReadingJohn 13, 19:16-27; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6.Jennings, Theodore W., ‘The Lover and His Beloved’ in The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament (Cleveland: Pilgrimage Press, 2003), 36-54.Martin, Dale, ‘Arsenokoites and Malakos: Meanings and Consequences’ in in Sex and the Single Savior (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 37-50.Further ReadingBoswell, John ‘The Scriptures’ in Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 106-118.Martin, Dale, ‘Heterosexism and the Interpretation of Romans 1:18-32’ in in Sex and the Single Savior (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 51-64.Nissinnen, Martti, ‘The New Testament’ in Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 103-122.WEEK 7 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Queering the Song of SongsIn this advanced seminar we will discuss the required readings for this week, which represent two different types of queer approaches to reading the Song of Songs. How do these two ways of reading the text compare with one another and with the other texts we have examined?Required ReadingMoore, Stephen D., ‘Queering the Song of Songs in the History of Sexuality’ in Church History 69.2 (2000), 328-349.King, Christopher ‘A Love as Fierce as Death: Reclaiming the Song of Songs for Queer Lovers’ in Take Back the Word: A Queer Reading of the Bible, edited by Robert E Goss and Mona West (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2000), 126-142.WEEK 8: ALTERNATIVE ENRICHMENT WEEK: No LectureWEEK 9: MarriageIn this week’s seminar we will discuss the set readings about marriage in the Bible and what focusing on marriage can tell us about the role of gender and sexuality in biblical thinking about social and religious practice more broadly. In the lecture we will explore some questions relating to the nature and function of sexual violence. Why does sexual violence occur and how is it justified? What is the relationship between the kinds of sexual violence we see in biblical texts and the kinds of sexual violence we see in the contemporary world? Required ReadingGenesis 1-3; Exodus 21-22; Hosea 1-2; Matthew 19:1-12, 22:23-32; Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-5:11.Adler, Rachel, ‘The Battered Wife of God: Violence, Law and the Feminist Critique of the Prophets’ in Souther California Review of Law and Women’s Studies 7.2 (1998), 171-.Knust, Jennifer Wright, ‘Biblical Marriage: There Is No Single View on Marriage Presented in the Bible’ in Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 47-78.Further ReadingConstable, Nicole, ‘The Commodification of Intimacy: Marriage, Sex, and Reproductive Labor’ in Annual Review of Anthropology 38 (2009), 49 – 64.Jennings, Theodore W, ‘The Trouble with Marriage’ in An Ethic of Queer Sex: Principles and Improvisations (Chicago: Exploration Press, 2013), 59-68.Lévi-Strauss, Claude, ‘Nature and Culture’, ‘The Problem of Incest’ and ‘The Principles of Kinship’, in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (Boston: Beacon, 1969), 3-28, 478-498.Martin, Dale, ‘Familiar Idolatry and the Christian Case against Marriage’ in Sex and the Single Savior (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 103-124.WEEK 10: The Bible and Sexual ViolenceIn this session we will discuss the set reading on the relationship between sexual violence and social structures such as gender, class, race. How is sexual violence related to other kinds of violence? In the lecture we will explore contemporary debates about sex work and consider the ways that these debates might shape our reading of biblical accounts of prostitution. What does it mean to talk about prostitution as work? What is the relationship between the institution of marriage and the role of sex workers in ancient and contemporary societies?Required ReadingGenesis 16, 21:8-21, 29; Jeremiah 6.Scholz, Susanne, ‘Subjugated by Gender and Class: The Rape of Enslaved Women’ in Sacred Witness: Rape in the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 53-82.Colgan, Emily, ‘“Come Upon Her: Land as Raped in Jeremiah 6:1-8’ in Sexuality, Ideology and the Bible: Antipodean Engagements, edited by Robert J Myles and Caroline Blyth (Sheffield: Sheffield Pheonix Press, 2015), 20-34.Further ReadingHartman, Saidiya, ‘Seduction and the Ruses of Power’ in Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 79-112.Namaste, Ki, ‘Genderbashing: Sexuality, Gender and the Regulation of Public Space’ in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 14.2 (1996), 221-240.Puar, Jasbir, ‘Abu Ghraib and US Sexual Exceptionalism’ in Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 79-113.WEEK 10 ADVANCED SEMINAR: Troubling Desire in the Song of SongsIn this advanced seminar we will discuss the set readings for the week, which offer readings of the Song that consider it in relation both to S/M eroticism and to non-human sexual economies. Required ReadingBurrus, Virginia and Stephen D Moore, ‘Unsafe Sex: Feminism, Pornography and the Song of Songs’ in Biblical Interpretation 11.1 (2003), 24-52.Boer, Roland, ‘A Fleshly Reading: Masochism, Ecocriticism and the Song of Songs’ and ‘Making It, Literally: Metaphor, Economy and the Sensuality of Nature’ in The Earthy Nature of the Bible: Fleshly Readings of Sex, Masculinity and Carnality (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), 27-46.WEEK 11: Sex Work and the BibleIn this class we will spend the seminar discussing the set reading, which explores what biblical passages about prostitution look like through the eyes of contemporary sex workers and whether or how these passages can inform a Christian ethics of sex work. In the second half of the seminar you will have an opportunity to practice your oral exam presentation and discussion with other students to get feedback in preparation for your summative assessment.Required ReadingGenesis 38; Joshua 2, 6; Matthew 21:23-32; John 12:1-8/Luke 7:36-50/Mark 14:3-9/Matthew 26:6-13; Revelation 17:1-19:10.Ipsen, Avaren, ‘Rahab’s Deal’ in Sex Working and the Bible (London: Equinox, 2009), 55-88.Jennings, Theodore W., ‘Biblical Perspectives on Prostitution’ in An Ethic of Queer Sex: Principles and Improvisations (Chicago: Exploration Press, 2013), 95-108.Further ReadingBernstein, Elizabeth, ‘The Sexual Politics of the New Abolitionism’ in d i f f e r e n c e s: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 18.3 (2007), 128-151., Roland, ‘Hooker Hermeneutics: A Reading of Avaren Ipsen’s Sex Working and the Bible’ in in The Earthy Nature of the Bible: Fleshly Readings of Sex, Masculinity and Carnality (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), 93-102.Dube, Musa W., ‘Rahab Says Hello to Judith: A Decolonizing Feminist Reading’ in The Postcolonial Biblical Reader, edited by R S Sugirtharajah (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 142-158.Mac, Juno, ‘The Laws that Sex Workers Really Want’ TedxEastEnd, January 2016. Wu, Rose, ‘Women on the Boundary: Prostitution, Contemporary and in the Bible’ in Feminist Theology 10.28 (2001), 69-81. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download