On Wed, 4 Apr 2001 [log in to unmask] wrote: > so, are there any books --or, even better, essays -- that > might be used to *begin* an exploration of homosexuality > on [and, by implication, off] the screen . The last time I taught a course on homosexuality in film for undergraduates, I started them off with three short pieces from Jeffrey Weeks's book *Against Nature: Essays on History, Sexuality, and Identity* (London: Rivers Oram Press, 1991). I assigned essays 4, "Questions of Identity"; 5, "Against Nature"; and 9, "Uses and Abuses of Michel Foucalut." These writings don't discuss film, but they do a good job of introducing the debates over essentialism vs. social constructionism in the fields of Gay and Lesbian Studies and Queer Theory. Like the queer theorists who would build off of Foucault's work, Weeks is a constructionist, and he makes his position clear, but his writings don't tend to scare off freshmen the way some of the more difficult writings can. His reminder that "a social identity is no less real for being historically formed" is particularly helpful (and comforting) in a body of work that doesn't always explicitly point this out. Also, the short essays "Gay and Lesbian Criticism" (by Anneke Smelik) and "Queer Theory" (by Alexander Doty), both in Hill and Gibsons *The Oxford Guide to Film Studies* (Oxford UP, 1998), offer helpful background information for students going into this subject in the context of a film class. Dan Humphrey ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]