In the 20th century and now twenty-first, theoretical and critical concepts
of sex and love have often increased our sense of the division between
these. Yet within Western philosophical, literary, and cultural production,
more generally, they have often been inseparable, no more so than through
such concepts of eros and amor. We will address the tendency throughout the
twentieth century and now beyond within multiple theories and criticism to
separate out love and sex as well as the reverse tendency in cultural
production to ignore such distinctions. How a society organizes or
structures its sexual relations, as evidenced in its institutions, its
concepts, its art, and casual interactions, is key to understanding the
society itself. One of the focuses of the course will be to consider the
special claims that poets have made for the relationship between being in
love and writing poetry, focusing on the theoretical reasons for this
synergistic relationship as well as modifications of love writing by
twentieth century poets and some prose writers. An important focus of the
course will be to locate current musical lyrics that convey sexual love,
asking whether this music stays the course or veers away from traditional
love poetry.