Module: Gender & Sexuality

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Gender & Sexuality
Module Code	LIT1002 (ITS: EL202)
Faculty	English	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

This course considers Irish, British, and American textual and visual works from the eighteenth century up until the present that explore cultural constructs of gender and sexuality. It includes work in different genres by both prominent and lesser known writers/ artists who show that gender and sexuality might be more complex than we initially assume. In so doing, it examines a range of topics including the relationship of power and gender, the significance of body image, concepts of feminine and masculine in relation to nature, theories of the gaze. To assist in the examination of works that introduce such central human questions related to gender and sexuality, students will also read supplementary theoretical texts.

Learning Outcomes

1. Engage with central arguments related to the constructed nature of gender and sexuality as treated in literature, visual material, and theory.
2. Appreciate the different generic approaches to central questions in relation to gender and sexuality
3. Understand the historical development of changing approaches to gender and sexuality
4. Analyze a range of the political and cultural issues in relation to literature’s treatment of gender and sexuality.
5. Understand how literature engages with the relationship of identity to issues of gender and sexuality.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	21	Lectures
Independent Study	104	Independent Learning
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	10322	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Jennifer Mooney	Module Teacher	Kit Fryatt, Sharon Murphy

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Essay	Essay	25%	n/a
Formal Examination	Exam	75%	End-of-Semester

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Gender Politics: (3)
Richardson; M. Wollstonecraft; M. Edgeworth (essay; novels)

Bodies of Poetry: (2-3)
Keats and Tennyson (poetry)

Sisterhood: (1)
Christina Rossetti (poetry)

Gender performance: Fin de siècle aesthetics (2)
Somerville and Ross; George du Maurier (illustrated novels)

Gender transformation: (1)
Virginia Woolf (novel)

Gender and Nature: The Frontiersman (1)
Jack London (children’s book)

Gender and Race (1)
Richard Wright (short fiction)

Image and identity: The Silver Screen goddess (2)
Angela Carter; Mankiewicz, All About Eve (novel and film)

Body and self: sexuality and animalism (2)
Angela Carter (fairy tales)

Sex and censorship in Ireland (1)
Kate O’Brien (novel)

Gendering the Nation (2)
Lady Gregory and E. Boland (play and poetry)

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Belsey, Catherine and Jane Moore, eds.: 1997, The Feminist Reader, Macmillan, London,
Boland, Eavan: 1996, Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time, Vintage, London,
Cullingford, Elizabeth Butler: 2001, Irelandâ€™s Others: Ethnicity and Gender in Irish Literature and Popular Culture, Cork University Press, Cork,
Du Gay, Paul, Jessica Evans, and Peter Redman, eds.: 2002, Identity: A Reader, Sage, London,
Innes, C.L.: 1993, Woman and Nation. 1880-1935., Harvester, London,
Mirzoeff, Nicholas, ed.: 1998, The Visual Culture Reader, Routledge, London,
Sage, Lorna.: 1994, Flesh and the Mirror. Essays on the Art of Angela Carter, Virago, London,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None