240128 SE Queer Theories (2019S)

This interdisciplinary course will survey the ways queer theorists have thought about the diverse forms gender and sexuality take and have taken in different contexts; the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with other influences, such as race, ethnicity, and ability; the psychical and social aspects of LGBT life in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; and the methodological challenges attending efforts to speak and write about genders and sexualities from divergent historical periods and political formations. We will critically examine essay-length and book-length examples of queer theories with the aim of gaining a sense of the field’s origins and current trajectory. We will also discuss a graphic novel (Bechdel’s Fun Home, 2006) and two films (Livingston’s Paris is Burning, 1990; Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, 2017) in light of these theories. Much as our readings position themselves in relationship to one another, both this syllabus and our classroom discussion will form an ongoing dialogue that seeks to understandand to shapeboth the history and the future of queer theory. Over the course of the semester, you will be asked to compare and contrast different queer theories; critique them in ways that will reveal their strengths and limitations; and use them to advance your own intellectual interests.