Gender Studies 4530/English 4530

Gender and Sexuality in Literature

Renny Christopher

Spring, 2002

TR 11:15

Note: WMST 4530 satisfies the F3 (Social Sciences) and G (Humanities) General Education Requirements; ENGL 4530 does not! ENGL 4530 is applicable to Elective Credit for the English major.

Texts

Feinberg, Leslie. Stone Butch Blues.
Baldwin, James. Giovanni's Room. Dell. . ISBN: 0-440-32881-0
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Routledge, 1990. ISBN: 0-415-90043-3
Forster, E. M. Maurice. W. W. Norton. . ISBN: 393310329
Haggerty, George E. & Bonnie Zimmerman, Editors. Professions of Desire: Lesbian and Gay Studies in Literature. The Modern Language Association. ISBN: 0- 87352-563-9
Hall, Radclyffe. Well of Loneliness. Anchor. . ISBN: 0-385-41609-1
Jagose, Annamarie. Queer Theory: An Introduction. NY University Press. 1996. ISBN: 0-8147-4234-3
Russ, Joanna. Female Man. Beacon. ISBN: 0-8070-6313-4
Leavitt, David. The Lost Language of Cranes
Selections from: Dorothy Allison, Trash, Paul Monette, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Richard Rodriguez, Days of Obligation
 
 

Course Requirements: This course centers on the reading and discussion of the assigned texts; therefore keeping up with the reading and attending class are vital elements of participation in this course. Writing is also an important element; there will be two essays, for which suggested topics will be given in writing in advance of the essay due dates.

Grading:

Class participation: 20%
Midterm & Final 40%
Two essays: 40%

Course Description:

What is gay/lesbian/bisexual studies and/or Queer Theory?

"Throughout the centuries, homosexual literature has remained hidden in plain sight, never far from view but elusive to all except those who created and read it. Thus ghettoized, gay literature was the furtive province of imagined moral guilt and perceived deviant sexuality, inhabited by doomed homosexuals and social outcasts.

The past twenty-five years have witnessed the emergence of gay literature from the realms of the clandestine into the main currents of cultural thought, and the establishment of a major literary movement with an ever-increasing canon of work. It is a movement that, by reaching deeply into the shared and individual experiences and complexities of homosexual life, is laying claim to all the potential for expressive thought that literature offers, taking issue with the untrue and illuminating the universal human need and desire for self-worth, affirmation, pleasure, gratification, and love.

It has been suggested that, like other literary movements, gay literature requires its own critical standard or aesthetic an all-encompassing queer aesthetic. Others believe that gay literature should be held to the same critical standards as other literary movements. The debate over the purpose and future of gay literature and its relation to a larger cultural landscape will continue. A resolution to the conflict between gay assimilationists and gay militants over legitimacy versus liberation is nowhere in sight. That the controversy can take place, and in the clear light of day, may be the most significant achievement of all." (From the bibliography of the New York Public library website: http://gopher.nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/gay.html)

Tentative Schedule:

Week 1. Introduction to Queer Theory. The academic history of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered studies.

Week 2. Pioneers: early lesbian literature. The Well of Loneliness.

Week 3. Pioneers: early gay literature. Giovanni's Room.

Week 4. Gay writers in the canon: Maurice.

Tales of the Avunculate: Queer Tutelage in The Importance of Being Earnest. Professions, 191-209.

Week 5. Theoretical perspectives: Queer Theory: An Introduction..

Also read the review of QT by The Australian Humanities Review 1 and C.W. Young's response.

Week 6. Theoretical Perspectives: Gender Trouble.

Week 7. Gender Trouble

Week 8. Teaching the Postmodern Renaissance. Professions, 60-71.

Week 9. Contemporary literature:  Stone Butch Blues.
 What is Lesbian Literature: Forming a Historical Canon. Professions, 49-59.; Lesbian Poetry in the United States, 1890-1990. Professions, 98-110.

Week 10: Contemporary Literature: Lost Language of Cranes
Rags from Professions

Week 11. Class and Sexuality: Selections from: Dorothy Allison, Trash, Paul Monette, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Richard Rodriguez, Days of Obligation

Week 12. Race and Sexuality: Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality.
Race, Homosexual Desire, and "Mammon" in Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, by Cheryl Clarke. Professions, 84-97.
 

Week 13. Science Fiction and sexuality: Female Man.
Lesbian Modernism: [Trans]Forming the [C]anon. Professions, 72-83.

From the course proposal:

Justification:

No such course has ever been taught on this campus, and there is a great need for such a course, in order to introduce students to issues of sexual difference as they are manifested in literature and society, and to promote an atmosphere of tolerance which does not currently exist on this campus; such an atmosphere of tolerance would be of great benefit to the homosexual student, faculty, and staff population of our campus. This course will be cross-listed between English and Women's Studies. The 1998 Women's Studies self-study reports that students "are demanding more specific coursework in Gayl Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender studies." This course will be one step in fulfilling that student demand. For students in English, it will serve as elective credit in the major, and will introduce students to an important body of literature which is the focus of much contemporary literary critical attention, as witnessed by the large number of critical studies of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual literature which have been published in recent years, and which continue to be published.

Learning objectives of this course:

ï Students will develop a familiarity with the varieties of literature and theory that have been developed in the twentieth century

ï Students will explore literary expressions of sexual difference in order to develop a broader understanding of the range of sexual identities and how those identities affect people's lives

ï In grappling with new theories and ideas, students will develop critical thinking skills

ï Students will develop their writing skills through the required essays

ï Students will develop their analytic and expressive skills through class discussion

ï Student learning will be assessed through essay exams in which students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the theoretical and literary material, and through essays in which students will have an opportunity to develop their own ideas and perspectives on the texts.