https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
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Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
General Questions: “Western interventions which seek to impose a Western narrative on the queer African struggle are part of an uninterrupted history of suppressing the needs and experiences of Africans dating back to colonisation. The African struggle is not only directed at changing existing legislation; it is a struggle in which we seek to reassert our own narrative and reclaim our humanity” (Ekine, 87) “Even as African LGBT people have become the site of struggle between competing but related narratives and as the associated tensions push against each other in internally divisive ways, it is essential they engage on their own terms, with the national and international, and continue to explore the challenges of a transformative politic” (Ekine, 90).
Discussion Questions about the first part (1-80):
Chapter 4, second paragraph: “In the weeks following Papa’s death, it seemed…” (21). Chapter 14, towards the end: “suddenly I felt an urge to pray… After a while, I stood up and took myself back home” (71 - 72) Discussion Questions (Part 2)
Discussion Questions (Part 3)
Micha Cardenas, Trish Salah, Christopher Soto, Fatimah Asghar
Discussion Questions
2) Read Soto’s poem out loud:
3) Read Asghar’s poem out loud:
4) Revisit Micha Cardenas’ poetry and poetics:
Gay Imperialism
Discussion Questions 04/17/18 Key words: Homonationalism Pinkwashing Carceral feminism Savior complex (“women-saving” rhetoric) Production of key figures by neoliberal militarizing regimes: Rape victim Prosecuted homosexual Gay soldier Trans soldier
Jack Halberstam’s Queer Time and Space
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room
4/5/18 Passages for Close Reading: 1) “I stand at the window of this great house” … “It will all be the same, only it will be stiller” (Part I, chapter one, beginning, 4) 2) “Then we sat in silence for a while, smoking cigarettes... human tangle occuring everywhere, without end, forever.” (67-68) (part I, chapter 3) 3) “I remember that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea… metamorphosis which my memorizing had helped to bring about” (81) (Part II, chapter 1, beginning) 4) “The beast which Giovanni had awakened in me.... Which was nourished by the same roots” (91) (Part II, chapter 1, ending). Discussion questions:
This an end-of-class reflection on our class community, course readings, personal growth, and political shifts. Read your first journal entry and reflect on any changes or shifts in your thinking. You may use the following questions to help you write this reflection, but you do not have to address all of these questions.
Think about one or two readings that shaped your world-view. How did these reading make you think about the world outside this class differently? How did class discussions create space for personal growth? What made class discussions hard/ triggering/ unbalanced? What made them energetic/ exciting/ healing? How do you conceptualize queer and trans politics differently after this class? Has your personal gender and sexuality narrative shifted after encountering the texts in this class? Why or why not? Many authors we read define "queer" and "trans" in different ways. What does "queer" and "trans" mean to you after this class? This journal entry is about nation, nationality, and nationalism.
Write about how you conceptualize the intersections of gender and sexuality with nationalism or nationality. How does the nation (either the U.S. nation, or any other nation/country you have lived in) inform your understanding of gender and sexuality? What is it about your location in a specific nation that shapes your personal or political view of queerness/transness? How does colonialism, imperialism, and the global power of the U.S./ Western Europe shape your view of gender and sexuality? This should be a meditative piece, and you can make it as personal or theoretical as you want. If you choose to write a migration narrative (either your own, or of someone you know), pay attention to how racialization factors into immigration. You do not have to answer all these questions. They are only meant to stir your thinking on the intersections of gender/sexuality with nationalism and nationality. Create an object (poem, essay, fiction, sketch, painting, film etc.) that showcases your imagined queer or trans world. Your object can include anything that allows you to imagine a different world, but it should demonstrate your imaginative/speculative skills. Include a one page artist's statement when you submit your project. Use the poetics statements in our poetry anthology as a model for your artist's statement. If you create a non-textual object, add a brief description of the object in your artist's statement.
Keep in mind that this is an imaginative and speculative project, similar to science fiction. This means that I am asking you to move beyond realizable and foreseeable changes in the world. Think beyond reform. Think beyond equality, inclusion, and tolerance. Think about a world that may seem "too good to be true" or "unpractical," but one that nevertheless allows for radical speculation. For example, we can't fully imagine what a world without capitalism would look like, but we can speculate and imagine how our relationships would be different without capitalism. Or we can't foresee a world without the police or prisons in the near future, but let's imagine together what such a world would look like. Or we can't know what a world without the gender binary would be like, but let's use this project as a way to really imagine and think about how our bodies or spaces would be structured differently without the gender binary. Use this project as an imaginative exercise. You may use abstract language in your artist's statement, but some concrete, specific example is necessary to get your point across to your reader/viewer. If you are having trouble, you can use Alexis Pauline Gumb's "Evidence" from Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Marie Brown) as inspiration. This journal entry is on space and place.
Pick one of the following prompts: 1) Identify one or more spaces/places in your academic life. Write about how these space/places inform your intellectual and political orientation. How do these spaces inform how you think about your academic work (this can be in relation to your papers in this class, or your work in other classes)? How do your movements in these spaces interact with your research/ interpretations of texts (these texts can be from this class or from other classes)? 2) Identify one or more of your personal "home" spaces/places. Remember, this can be a physical space (like the queer family table that Sara Ahmed describes), or a metaphorical/spiritual space (like the body for Eli Clare). Write about how and why you consider this space/place your "home." How did it become home for you? What are the contradictions in this homeplace? What does feeling at home mean to you? [use these questions as a jumping point, but please remember that you do not have to answer or address all these questions-- they are simply meant to stir your thinking] |
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