QUEER GENRES

In this class, we will focus on queer narratives of the self to explore how authors represent queerness across centuries and genres, and how these queer narratives are informed by various historical, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into account the particularities of each author’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions: How do various cultural, national, linguistic, religious or political contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and represented in literature? How do these authors represent the intersections of queerness with race, class, ethnicity, disability and citizenship? How have queer narratives developed over time and across cultures in conversation with local and global modes of conceptualizing gender and sexuality? How do queer authors utilize the particularities of each genre to create new forms of self-expression?

Texts will span various genres such as short stories, poems, memoirs, graphic novels, novels and personal essays by authors such as James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Sappho, Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Adrienne Rich, Casey Plett and Imogen Binnie. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider these works from a range of perspectives, such as queer studies, feminist studies, disability studies, and transgender studies.