ENGL265/LGBT265:LGBT Literature
[Race and Place in Queer/Trans Literatures]
Instructor: Aqdas Aftab
Instructor: Aqdas Aftab
What are queer and trans literatures? Are queer and trans literatures simply texts written by LGBT identified writers? Or are these literatures concerned with a common set of themes that identify them as such? What kinds of racialized and imperialist norms have the power to categorize certain literatures as “LGBT”? What are queer and trans theories, and how do these theories relate to contemporary LGBT politics? What are queer and trans theories of color? We will enter the course with these questions, and explore queer/trans literature by examining the relationship between aesthetic forms and sexual and gender subjectivity.
This course is an exploration of literary and cultural expressions of gender, sexuality, & sex that focuses on a range of literary genres, such as fiction, memoir, essays, poetry, & film. We will read the works of queer and trans artists like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Chinelo Okparanta, Kit Yan, and Trish Salah, and theorists like E. Patrick Johnson, Jose Munoz, Sara Ahmed, Jack Halberstam, and Dean Spade. We will pay particular attention to the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, colonialism, globalization, and nationalism. Our focus will be on texts composed by writers of color, primarily texts that deal with issues of sexual and gender non-normativity outside the U.S. While each text represents some aspect of queer and trans life and experience, it is important to note that none of these texts is representative of queer/trans cultures, experiences, understandings, or ways of being in the world.
Required Texts:
[Please buy specified edition if possible.]
Zami by Audre Lorde (ISBN: 9780895941220)
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (ISBN: 9780345806567)
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (ISBN: 9780544003446)
Trumpet by Jackie Kay (ISBN: 9780375704635)
Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics edited by TC Tolbert and Tim Trace Peterson (ISBN: 9781937658106)
This course is an exploration of literary and cultural expressions of gender, sexuality, & sex that focuses on a range of literary genres, such as fiction, memoir, essays, poetry, & film. We will read the works of queer and trans artists like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Chinelo Okparanta, Kit Yan, and Trish Salah, and theorists like E. Patrick Johnson, Jose Munoz, Sara Ahmed, Jack Halberstam, and Dean Spade. We will pay particular attention to the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, colonialism, globalization, and nationalism. Our focus will be on texts composed by writers of color, primarily texts that deal with issues of sexual and gender non-normativity outside the U.S. While each text represents some aspect of queer and trans life and experience, it is important to note that none of these texts is representative of queer/trans cultures, experiences, understandings, or ways of being in the world.
Required Texts:
[Please buy specified edition if possible.]
Zami by Audre Lorde (ISBN: 9780895941220)
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (ISBN: 9780345806567)
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (ISBN: 9780544003446)
Trumpet by Jackie Kay (ISBN: 9780375704635)
Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics edited by TC Tolbert and Tim Trace Peterson (ISBN: 9781937658106)