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CULS30004 Final Essay Questions
THE TASK:
● Choose one question from the list on the following pages
● The main objective of the final essay is to engage with and demonstrate an understanding of material covered in weeks 6-12 of the subject
● Your analysis should take the form of a 2,000 word essay (+/-10%), with an introduction including a thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The word count includes all text from the body of the essay and does not include the bibliography or titles.
RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS / OTHER INSTRUCTIONS:
→ This is a research essay. It requires you to examine a topic in more depth and showcase your ability to undertake appropriate academic research!
● Your essay must use at least one of the weekly set readings from weeks 6-12. You can use more than one, but you need to use at least one.
○ This is to help you show understanding of relevant concepts/theories/approaches covered in the subject, so ensure that you choose a reading that is relevant to your essay topic.
○ You can use readings from earlier in the semester, but you still need at least one from weeks 6-12.
○ If the question includes a quote, or mentions author/s of certain readings by name, then use these texts/authors closely in the essay.
● You must also use at least 8 other academic sources in addition to weekly set readings. We encourage you to draw upon any relevant additional readings from the subject guide (this helps demonstrate understanding of course materials), as well as research you find yourself.
● You can use any referencing system as long as you are consistent and use page numbers in your citations, unless you are referring to the text as a whole.
● You must cite all sources used in your essay and the essay must be written by you, without the assistance of AI. Please view the university’s academic integrity page and the information on AI use and academic integrity, if you are unsure what constitutes academic misconduct in general and re: AI use.
● For this task, you are not permitted to write on the same topic as your first essay or cover the same research territory. Broad conceptual or thematic overlap and connections is fine, but avoid using the same principal theorists or readings; examples etc.
● Unlike the first essay, you can cover similar terrain as one of your reflective journal entries, but you cannot copy and paste from the journal into the essay as re-submitting work falls under the purview of academic misconduct.
● If you have questions, please ask! We are happy to clarify your interpretation of the question, discuss your ideas, give input on your thesis statement and plan, etc. We cannot read drafts though.
TIPS FOR APPROACHING THE TASK:
● Read the feedback on your first essay and the general feedback we provided.
● While this essay is longer than the first one, a specific and limited scope is always going to produce a stronger essay than a broad, general one.
● You are welcome to use a case study/example or keep the essay abstract/theoretical, unless the essay question specifically asks for an example. If you’re using a case study/example, you are welcome to include images/ screenshots if this is useful.
● Ensure you include any case study/example material in your bibliography (eg. films; websites; TV shows; social media accounts etc.)
ESSAY QUESTIONS:
1. How have sexological discourses helped to shape how we understand sexualities today? In your response, consider one specific modern sexual formation (eg. homosexuality, female sexual inversion, sex addiction, inhibited sexual desire, etc).
2. How do historical constructions of racialised sexuality continue to live on in the present day? Discuss in relation to one example.
3. How has colonisation impacted the formation of modern sexualities? Discuss in relation to one national context.
** While we discussed settler colonialism in the lecture/tutorials/readings, you are welcome to focus on other forms of colonialism. If you choose to do so, ensure you do further reading about these forms of colonisation.
4. Homonationalism is a concept that examines how ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ of (some) LGBT subjects is used as part of a nation-building project to advance discourses of modernity and progress.How do nations construct homonationalist discourses and what are the effects of homonationalism?
**In your response, draw on one particular nation, and focus on a specific example (eg. Sydney Mardi Gras; Australia’s ‘Marriage Equality’ campaign; a national ‘gay tourism’ campaign; the War on Terror, etc.).
5. Beauchamps notes that “Bathroom surveillance often appears as a matter of public safety rather than as surveillance per se, and rationalizing bodily scrutiny in this way allows concepts like “the general public” and “safety” to stand unquestioned as common sense;...” (81)
In what ways are national security discourses intertwined with gender and/or sexuality? Discuss using contemporary cultural example/s.
6. In their chapter “Pedagogies of the Dark: Making Sense of Queer Nightlife” Eddie Gamboa notes that “Stretching across literal dark alleyways and metaphorical closets, opportune moments seized in tearooms and the comforts of night-time economies, the dark frequently provides the backdrop for the rehearsal of queer eroticism. However, the dark is more than a setting for possibility, the dark is also an orientation that develops a style of sexual pedagogy” (91-92).
In line with Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner’s notion of queer counterpublics, Gamboa’s pedagogies of the dark form around a queer world-making project, a queer “way of being.”
By analysing an example of a queer counterpublic that works through a pedagogy of the dark, consider what makes your chosen example a counterpublic, how does it form and what kind of queer worlds does it imagine into being? What kind of pedagogies of the dark are at work in it?
7. Capitalism and sexual identity are intimately intertwined, both historically and in the present day. Discuss D’Emilio’s historicising argument on capitalism and sexual identity, and explore some of the implications of this entwinement using contemporary example(s).
**In your response make sure to engage both with D’Emilio and additional academic sources as well as pick a concrete/distinct example.
8. In No Future, Lee Edelman implores us to “fuck the future”. Why? What do you think is the future for the figure of the queer?
9. Ahmed discusses the role of affect—both positive and negative—in relation to queer identities, politics and cultures, and outlines different ideas of ‘queer happiness’.
How does heterosexuality work in relation to what Ahmed terms “the promise of happiness”? What might ‘queer happiness’ mean within a heteronormative society?
10.“The more I see, the more skeptical I am of sharp divides between Western and non-Western experiences of sexuality, and the surer I become that we cannot discuss sex/ gender structures independent of larger sociopolitical ones” (Altman, “Rupture or Continuity? The Internationalization of Gay Identities,” 92).
Why is Altman skeptical of divides between Western and non-Western experiences of sexuality? How has cultural globalisation impacted sexual cultures?
**In your response, consider particular sexual cultures within a region, nation or a city (ie. choose somewhere specific, rather than a broad, generalising discussion). It may be helpful to analyse specific texts, sites or practices produced by these sexual cultures (eg. a magazine; a club; a public event; online subcultures or forums etc).
11. Pornography is always faced with the problem of how to visually represent that which is non-visual: erotic pleasure. Discuss in reference to specific pornographic images/clips/ films.
12.How do so-called “alternative pornographies”or alternative erotica, such as “hardcore art cinema” or audio erotica or literary porn or smutty / slash fanfiction transgress – or, alternatively, reinforce – sexual and/ or gendered norms?
**In your response consider a particular hardcore art cinema film or a piece of audio erotica, or a work of literary porn or a piece of smutty / slash fanfiction as this will enable you to do close analysis to support your argument.
13.You may wish to write your own question or modify one of the existing questions. The question must refer to material from weeks 6-12, in line with the other questions. As this is a third year subject, you are strongly encouraged to write on a topic of interest to you!
If you wish to do so, your question must be sent to Elena via email and approved by the end of week 12 at the latest.