Last Exit to Brooklyn ( redux )

1. Alberta seduces Harry Alberta is a trans- person Harry is good, giving, and game Harry’s initial reaction is quickly overcome he learns how to have anal sex that is, he learns how to perform at odds with traditional masculinity and with traditional heterosexuality there are just bodies and pleasures* Last Exit to Brooklyn (redux) *obligatory nod to Michel Foucault

2. prominent gender theorist Gender Trouble (1990) Bodies that Matter (1993) most famous for theory of PERFORMATIVITY gender is performed according to pre-existing conventions it is always a repetition without an original Judith Butler

3. from My Secret Life from Fanny Hill from Ulysses from The Conservationist “My Subway Lover” Surprise! Voyeurism, Anonymity, the Unexpected

4. Surprise! Voyeurism, Anonymity, the Unexpected

5. Surprise! Voyeurism, Anonymity, the Unexpected

6. Surprise! Voyeurism, Anonymity, the Unexpected

7. anonymous text, late nineteenth century (c. 1890s) • written by “Walter” • 11 volume account of his sexual adventures • Aestheticism | Decadence • In this excerpt: Surprise Sex! • Setting – where are we? • Action – what happens? • Point of view – who tells it/narrates? • What of the reader? • how is the reader produced or constructed? • what’s the role of the reader in the situation? from My Secret Lifec. 1890

8. Cleland • journalist and novelist • well educated • Fanny Hill sells well but he earns little • gets charged with indecency • novel again challenged 1963 • Fanny Hill • a woman of pleasure • a libertine • pre-Revolutionary France – good times • a licentious woman for a change • a sexual adventurer from Fanny HillJohn Cleland (c. 1748) from the 2007 film version

9. In this excerpt – Voyeurism • Setting • where are we? • how does the setting reflect or conflict with the action? • Action • what happens? • how do the different lines of action relate? • Point of view • who tells it/narrates? • what’s the tone, vocabulary, diction? • What of the reader? • how is the reader produced or constructed? • what’s the role of the reader in the situation? from Fanny HillJohn Cleland (c. 1748)

10. South African writer • Nobel Prize 1991 • The Conservationist shared the Man Booker prize • The Conservationist • rich white businessman • wife leaves him • no one understands him • son is critical and gay • he buys a farm in the bush • body turns up on farm • burned and buried • flood uncovers it • he’s haunted by it • proper burial from The ConservationistNadine Gordimer (1974)

11. In this excerpt: Anonymity • race, class, species, generation, land | alterity = taboo • family – mama and two sisters – where is the father? • innuendo, approach • language of gesture and touch – “who spoke first?” • surveillance | exchange | communication • switch of point of view – “He” to “I” – then back again • what happens here? how can we understand this? • how does it either reinforce or undermine the eroticism? • awkward realism – tacky skin, dampness, hairiness, silkiness, heat from The ConservationistNadine Gordimer (1974)

12. Utopia | Fantasy | Risk • utopia • Gk.: outopia= no place • Gk.: eutopia= good place • out of time • out of place • this happens now here • this happens nowhere • this happens no time • And then they land • RISK realized • fantasy broken from The ConservationistNadine Gordimer (1974)

13. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again • no place, no time • Heisenberg’s Principle Werner Heisenberg

14. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again – no place, no time • the train = conventionally phallic

15. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again – no place, no time • the train = conventionally phallic • anonymity

16. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again – no place, no time • the train = conventionally phallic • anonymity | the crowd

17. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again – no place, no time • the train = conventionally phallic • anonymity | the crowd | intimacy in public

18. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • another utopian fantasy • in transit again – no place, no time • the train = conventionally phallic • anonymity | the crowd | intimacy in public • taboo | risk of discovery • excitement, enticement, tension and • RELEASE “from the confinements of my sexual desire”

19. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • and the lover is pure fantasy:

20. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • and the lover is pure fantasy: • beautiful

21. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • and the lover is pure fantasy: • beautiful • skilled • available

22. My Subway Lover – Wanda Honn (1987) • and the lover is pure fantasy: • beautiful • skilled • available • anonymous

23. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922) • James Joyce – 1882-1941 • Irish writer • perhaps the greatest of 2othC • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake • stream of consciousness, everyday, profane

24. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922) • Homer’s Odyssey (about 500 BCE) • story of Odysseus ✔ This Homer NOT this Homer

25. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922) • Odysseus meets Nausicaa • nymph • on the beach • bathing with friends • O is embarrassed • she takes him in • he “dallies” • for a few years • then heads “home”

26. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922) • In Ulysses Joyce makes this mundane and exposes the likely reality • Nausicaa becomes Gerty McDowell • Odysseus becomes Bloom • the heroic story becomes everyday reality • sordid, debased • in place of the mythic we get • women’s magazines and • advertising from “Ulysses ‘Seen’”

27. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922)

28. “Nausicaa” from Ulysses– James Joyce (1922)

29. Next Week: • from Life and Loves [Harris] • “La Batarde” • begin The Piano Teacher