WGSS 418
Racial Melancholia, Queer Melancholia
Spring 2025
Division II
W Writing Skills
D Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed
AMST 415 / AAS 415
Class Details
The psychoanalytic theory of melancholia–the ways in which one refuses to fully let go of that which one has lost–is a foundational concept to the fields of ethnic studies, queer theory, and cultural studies. In the wake of losses due variously to histories of forced migration and slavery, the AIDS epidemic, war, and social exclusion, various scholars and critics have posited melancholia as a structuring condition of contemporary life as subjects differently navigate loss, displacement, and exclusion. Theories of racial and queer melancholia have emerged as supple frameworks through which to consider how queer and racialized subjects hold onto non-normative ways of being, relation, and sociality against the normalizing tides of erasure. We will chart out a connection between how we relate to and apprehend the past as it then pertains to how we relate to and apprehend others. Beginning with a dive into Freudian psychoanalysis, this seminar will explore concepts of loss and melancholia and their uptake into critical theory, critical race theory, and queer theory/queer of color critique. Alongside our scholarly inquiries, we will engage with a range of art, literature, performance, and film that explore topics of memory, trauma, migration, the queer past and the queer future, subjectivity, relationality, and gender and sexuality.
The Class:
Format: seminar
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 3954
Grading: yes pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 3954
Grading: yes pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
In-class participation, discussion posts, short analysis papers, and a final paper that engages original research and/or creative work.
Prerequisites:
None
Enrollment Preferences:
AMST, WGSS majors, AAS concentrators or students interested in majoring/concentrating in these areas.
Distributions:
Divison II
Writing Skills
Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes:
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
WGSS 418 Division II AMST 415 Division II AAS 415 Division II
WGSS 418 Division II AMST 415 Division II AAS 415 Division II
WS Notes:
Students will produce a number of written assignments that assess their analysis, critique, and interpretation of critical texts and artistic works. This includes regular discussion posts, paper presentations, and a final essay that will receive peer and instructor feedback.
DPE Notes:
This course engages with a major topic of concern--the theory of melancholia--across a number of fields including ethnic studies, women's, gender, and sexuality studies, and critical theory. In particular, attention is paid to the function of loss, dispossession, and displacement as it affects individuals and communities who are differently marginalized by colonialism, racial capitalism, and heteronormativity.
Attributes:
AMST Critical and Cultural Theory Electives
Class Grid
Updated 9:49 am
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WGSS 418 - 01 (S) SEM Racial/Queer Melancholia
WGSS 418 - 01 (S) SEM Racial/Queer MelancholiaDivision II W Writing Skills D Difference, Power, and EquityMR 2:35 pm - 3:50 pm
3954OpenNone