ENGL 265-01, Queer Identities and Queer Narratives, Fall 2009

Abstract

This course will examine questions of identity and desire in a relatively small sampling of works by, and/or about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people. In addition to the literary questions raised by the selected novels, plays, short stories, and poems we will be attentive to the way these works have participated in creating the modern history of sexuality, how they have helped make queer identity and queer politics possible. Some of the works we read will openly address the experiences of gay people in a homophobic world. Other works will provide insight into the narrative strategies that writers have used to explore the forbidden topic of same-sex desire. As we read and discuss these texts, we will be considering some of the vexed issues that crop up whenever one claims an identity for oneself or imposes an identity on others. Course objectives: become conversant with some of the key works of the European/American GLBT literary tradition; be able to articulate and think critically about the major terms, concepts, and themes of this tradition; be able to interpret and argue about these works in writing, with precision and persuasiveness,