ENGL 90907 - Queer Theory, Film and Literature

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

This graduate course will introduce students to some of the critical perspectives and theories that enliven contemporary literary and cultural studies on Gay and Lesbian Film and Literature. The course materials come from a wide array of disciplines, and accordingly we'll be asking how different genres (such as literature, film, psychoanalytic study, "theory," and documentary film) help frame sexuality in everyday, academic, and political contexts. Beginning with early sexologists like Havelock Ellis and Freud, our discussions will consider a series of questions surrounding the issues of desire, closets, cures, and etiologies, attempting to understand how medical theories on homosexuality have influenced cultural discourses represented in the films and literary texts we will be examining. Against this backdrop we'll juxtapose some contemporary queer theory by Foucault and Jeffrey Weeks, using this as a springboard from which to examine a variety of contemporary novels and films, from classic "high modernist" texts (such as Orlando) to non-canonical literature (such as The Hours). We will look closely at the relation between each author's textual innovations and their representation of sexual difference, asking the crucial question: is sexuality conceived as something that is natural, or is it understood to be a cultural construct? We will examine the various conceptual permutations the body and desire have experienced, paying close attention to how these representations intersect with the categories of gender and sexual identity in general.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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