MUS 201-01 - Topics in Music and Culture: Music, Sexuality and Other “Dangerous” Things

4 credits (Spring)

Music has been a sociocultural forum for producing, reproducing, circulating, and consuming ideologies of sexuality, gender, body, and desire. This course explores how music in Western culture has been associated with these “dangerous” things, drawing on readings in musicology, music theory, semiotics, feminist theory, queer studies, and other related disciplines. The topics to be covered include (but are not limited to): music and society; music and body; castrati; feminine and masculine music; lesbian and gay music; and music as a locus for negotiating gender, sexuality, and identity. (Each participant in this course is required to lead a class discussion, to write a critical book review, and to write and present a research paper on a topic of her or his choice.)

Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Cha