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ENGL 487: Queer Theory

What does sex have to do with interpretation? With art? With politics? With thought itself? Sex, the sexual, sexuality—whatever you want to call it—pervades political, relational, conceptual, psychical, and everyday life. As a result, the field of queer theory is a site of hotly contested concepts and agendas. Our course explores this hotbed of debate: both the (canonical) history of queer theory’s development as well as its current state. Many theorists struggle with defining the term “queer,” let alone decide upon its agenda. The course will continue this difficult work by exploring queer theory through a variety of splits: between identity politics and a desire to undo identity, between the masculine and feminine, between psychoanalytic theory and activism. From these ambivalences about how to position “queer” politics, we will explore how the term is situated in relation to a number of themes: namely, the drive, discourse, and commodity culture. While, for some scholars, queer theory is an object to think about, for others, it is an object to think with. Finally, we will explore queer theory’s relationship to literary study. Course readings, class discussions, and assignments will train students to articulate and develop difficult and flexible concepts both orally and in writing.

This is a theory-heavy course. Students who take this course will preferably have previous exposure to theory, have taken at least an introductory survey, and would be prepared to read longer excerpts. We will be reading a mix of essays, with the opportunity to apply different practices to creative works.