ENGL 341
American Genders, American Sexualites
Last Offered Spring 2017
Division I Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed ENGL 341 / WGSS 342 / AMST 341
This course is not offered in the current catalog

This course investigates how sexual identities, desires, and acts are represented and reproduced in American literary and popular culture. Focusing on two culturally rich periods–roughly 1880-1940 (when the terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” came to connote discrete sexual identities), and the contemporary context of the “postmodern” 21-century–we will explore what it means to read and theorize “queerly.” Among the questions we will ask: What counts as “sex” or “sexual identity” in a text? Are there definably lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or transgender writing styles or cultural practices? What does sexuality have to do with gender? How are sexual subjectivities intertwined with race, ethnicity, class, and other identities and identifications? Why has “queerness” proven to be such a powerful and sometimes powerfully contested concept? We will also explore what impact particular historical events, such as the rise of sexology, the Harlem Renaissance, and the emergence of a transgender movement have had on queer cultural production. Readings may include works by the following authors: Butler, Cather, Diaz, Ferguson, Fitzgerald, Foucault, Freud, Hammonds, Hughes, James, Larsen, Lorde, Muñoz, Rich, Rodriguez, Sedgwick, and Stein, and as well as screenings of contemporary videos and films.