32403

WiSe 21/22: Prostitution in American History to 1865

Sonja Dolinsek

Comments

Prostitution in American History to 1865 While the current meaning of “prostitution” refers solely to commercial sex, in the past the concept referred to a much broader range of non-normative female sexual relationships outside of marriage. This seminar approaches US history and the history of women, gender and sexuality in American history from the angle of “prostitution” and thus offers a thematic entry point to the history of gender relations in American history. What “prostitution” was, who counted as a “whore”, how the law and the authorities addressed “prostitution”, how commercial sex was structured and organized, what cultural meanings and social structures were negotiated via prostitution, what private organizations set out to help prostitutes or abolish prostitution and how “prostitution” was embedded in the broader political, socio-economic and cultural context are among the questions that will be discussed in this class. The seminar focuses on urban settings in the North-East as well as Southern cities, where commercial sex was deeply enmeshed with the system of racialized slavery. On a meta-level, this class offers an overview of the shift from “women’s history” to “gender history” in that we will read both earlier and recent studies on the history of prostitution. These readings will be complemented by core theoretical contributions to gender history and the analysis of historical sources. Selected readings: Kaite Hemphill. Bawdy City: Commercial Sex and Regulation in Baltimore, 1790–1915 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). Joanne Meyerowitz. „A History of ‚Gender‘“. The American Historical Review 113(5) (2008): 1346–56. Jessica Pliley. “Prostitutes and Prostitution in America,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History (New York: Oxford University Press). Emily Alyssa Owens. Fantasies of Consent: Black Women's Sexual Labor in 19th Century New Orleans. (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, 2015). Joan W. Scott. ‘The Evidence of Experience’. Critical Inquiry 17, no. 4 (1991): 773–97. Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789–1860 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982). close

16 Class schedule

Regular appointments

Tue, 18:00 - 20:00 16 Class schedule

Tue, 2021-10-19 18:00 - 20:00

Lecturers:
Sonja Dolinsek