DESCRIPTION: We will be reading contemporary texts (novels, memoir, poetry) and viewing films coming out of North America that explore illicit forms of desire—those that transgress heterosexual norms, and/or represent relationships that cross borders, or lines of religion, race or ethnicity, generation. As we take up these texts that explore desire and difference, our starting premise will be that there is nothing natural or given about what it means to be a man or woman, nor does one’s biological sex or gender identity predict one’s sexual identity and desires. At the same time, gender and sexuality are strictly organized and regulated (even policed) by society and its institutions (governmental, legal, educational, medical, familial), and there are particular gender and sexual scripts that we experience pressure to follow. Literature offers us a way to understand how these scripts are constructed and enforced. It also provides us with alternatives—with models for resisting and rebelling against proscribed gender and sexual roles, and for imagining alternatives to them. The works of literature and films that we will consider in this course, as they explore sometimes dangerous forms of difference and desire, investigate and offer insights into assumptions that define dominant understandings of romantic love, the nuclear family, “coupledom,” masculinity, femininity, and assumptions that biological sex determines gender identity. The texts also offer representations of what it means to be a gender and/or sexual outlaw—the pleasures and liberation that this can afford, and the societal censure and even violence that can result from expressing illicit forms of desire. As well, they provide insights into how thoroughly ideologies of gender and sexuality are connected to those of race, class, generation, region, religion, and nation. To help us understand these connections and to broaden them, we will put the books and films for this course into dialogue with contemporary debates, legislation, and events (i.e., age of consent laws, hate speech codes, gay bashing, anti-immigration legislation, etc. etc.).
This course meets “E” and “W” requirements. We will spend a substantial amount of class time on ethical issues.
REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES: Because discussion is a crucial part of this course, attendance is mandatory. Grades will be determined by the following components: one 5-6 page essay (200 points); an in-class final examination with a take-home essay of 7-8 pages (400 points); a class presentation and an annotated bibliography (50 points); in-class activities and quizzes (50 points); letters to the class (100 points). The distribution given here is approximate. Missed classes or failure to attend required conferences will impact your grade negatively.
ASSIGNED TEXTS (tentative listing; texts will be ordered through Revolution Books): Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina; Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale; Junot Diaz, This Is How You Lose Her; Zamora Linmark, Rolling the Rs; Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain; Juliana Spahr, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs; Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre
Films (will be placed on reserve at Sinclair Library; tentative listing): Boys Don’t Cry; Brokeback Mountain; Fire; The Hunger Games; The Namesake; Divine Intervention