LIT 60X: Kamasutra, Tantra, Sex

University of California, Santa Cruz

Few texts in the Sanskrit tradition or in world literature have aroused as much interest or suspicion as the Kamasutra; few concepts from Indian premodernity are as confused or exoticized as that of tantra; and few topics are as controversial as sexuality in our contemporary world. This course seeks to explore all three of these phenomena—the Kamasutra, tantra, and sexuality—to grasp their genesis, their meanings in different historical and cultural settings (especially ancient India), and their salience in our moment. Emphasis is placed on frameworks for understanding these phenomena, whether in light of psychoanalysis, forms of power and resistance, visual culture, or Orientalism.