ENGL265/LGBT265
New Title: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Literatures
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores a variety of literary and cultural expressions of sexuality and gender. In
studying a range of historical periods and genres (e.g., essay, poetry, novel, drama, film), the
course considers such topics as sexual norms and dissidence, gender identity and expression, and
the relationship between aesthetic forms and sexual subjectivity. Our aim will be to cultivate
skill in the interpretation of texts by reading through the lens of queer theory, a set of specific
critical strategies that have emerged as an important field in literary studies over the last two
decades. Our work will focus less on the sexual orientations of readers or writers than on the
textual manifestations and resonances of sex and gender variation. We will look at
representations of same-sex desire, at instances of sex and gender insubordination, at patterns of
identification and disidentification, and at how sex and gender intersect with other forms of
difference, including race and class.
The course will be both reading- and writing-intensive. To develop proficiency in queer reading,
we will consider key writings in queer theory and the history of sexuality. We will put theory
into practice by producing two fairly short queer close readings (2-3 page papers) and one longer
(5-page) essay that will require engagement with secondary sources assigned in class. There will
also be short in-class assignments and a comprehensive final examination.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
This course satisfies requirements for the Humanities and Understanding Plural Societies
categories of the university’s new General Education program. As such, it emphasizes the
development of skill in critical thinking, interpretation, and argumentation; the development of
familiarity and facility with fundamental terms, concepts, and methods used in the study of
literature; the development of understanding of the basis of human diversity and how scholars
analyze it in society and cultural forms. Here are some of the specific outcomes you should
expect to attain if you commit yourself to the work of this particular course:
● You will become more familiar and more skilled with reading, discussing, and writing
critically
● You will gain fluency in the technical vocabulary and concepts appropriate for analyzing
literature
● You will have a better understanding of queer theory as a set of specific critical strategies
within literary studies
● You will be able to critically analyze representations of same-sex desire, instances of sex
and gender subordination, and patterns of identification and disidentification
● You will have cultivated skills in the interpretation of texts and developed an
understanding of how sex and gender norms have changed over time by reading texts that
span a range of historical periods and genres
● You will have an understanding of how sex and gender intersect with other forms of
difference, including race and class, in LGBT literatures
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In order to accomplish these objectives, the course is divided into 6 clusters, pairing literary and
critical texts in order to enhance the reading of both and to aid in exploring the key issue of each
cluster. Such issues include anti-patriarchical eroticism, performativity, the vexed relationship
between misogyny and homophobia, race’s role in complicating definitions of homosexuality,
the importance of non-normative gender roles and identities, the sinister yet productive quality of
criminality and lethality, and the far-reaching implications of debates over publicity and privacy.
GRADED ASSIGNMENTS
Active Class Participation, In-Class Work
Queer Close Readings (2 @ 20% ea.)
Close Reading + Critical Engagement
Final Exam
20%
40%
25%
15%
Active Class Participation and In-Class Work
In addition to announced in-class exercises, active class participation may also include
unannounced in-class exercises. These assignments cannot be made up unless you have a
documented medical excuse for absence.
The objectives of active participation are to provide students with opportunities to discuss the
readings with a critical lens, offer utility to the class, ask appropriate and critical questions that
elevate thought, and share different perspectives and interpretations that extend frameworks of
knowledge. Active participation requires more than just attending class and taking notes. To earn
participation, you must also actively offer something that advances/elevates class discussion and
learning objectives. Remaining silent during class discussion will not earn you any participation
credit. Additionally, simply attending class will not earn you participation credit.
You will be expected to demonstrate improvement as the course advances. This means that class
discussions should improve and be more critical as we move forward in the semester because
everyone will have new tools to work with each week. It is in your best interest to build on what
you are learning rather than segmenting or compartmentalizing each week’s discussion. You
should build bridges between weeks and examine the entire scope of materials as you think
through and write assignments.
Queer Close Readings
You will write two typed, double-spaced, three-page papers in which you conduct a queer close
reading. These examinations of required texts will be one means by which we put theory into
practice.
The point of these assignments is for you to engage closely with the details (language, imagery,
meter, etc.) of literary texts. Do not consult secondary sources of any kind. Offer instead your
own best effort at interpretation. Remember that an interpretation is an argument. Your paper
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should have a clear, debatable thesis that is developed through a methodical presentation of
textual evidence. Consider the relationship of content to form.
You will be given a list of suggested topics designed to elicit a well-argued interpretation of one
of the texts studied in class. Papers must be submitted in class, and prepared in MLA/Works
Cited format. (See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for guidance on this
format.)
Close Reading + Critical Engagement
This assignment asks you to write a 5-page essay that carefully reads a primary text and engages
with one of the critical/theoretical texts we will study in the course. You might use a concept or
central idea from the secondary source as a framework or springboard for your own analysis. The
goal here is to develop skill in the use of secondary sources and appreciation for the fact that
literary interpretation is often a dialog with previous interpretations. You will get a list of
suggested topics for this paper, but you will also have the option of designing a topic of your
own, with approval (in advance) from the instructor. The assignment will include time for prewriting, peer-editing, and revising.
Final Exam
There will be one comprehensive final exam at the end of the semester. The exam will be partly
objective and partly analytical, asking you to identify/analyze characters and passages from texts
and to write short essays on significant themes, issues, and critical terms/concepts that have been
studied throughout the semester.
SAMPLE COURSE SCHEDULE
I. The Erotic vs. the Pornographic
Weeks 1-2
Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Emily Dickinson, “Wild Nights!”
II. Gender as Performance
Weeks 3-5
Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination”
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Jennie Livingston, Paris Is Burning (film)
First close reading due in week 3
III. Trapped
“I don’t feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body…I just feel trapped.”
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Weeks 6-7
Judith Halberstam, “The Transgender Look”
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
IV. Black Masculinity
Weeks 8-11
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “The Black Man’s Burden”
Essex Hemphill, “Does Your Mama Know About Me?”
Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston (film)
Essex Hemphill, “If His Name Were Mandingo,” “Black Beans,” “Under Certain
Circumstances,” “Where Seed Falls,” “Now We Think”
Richard Bruce Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies and Jade”
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
Second close reading due in week 8
V. It’s Criminal…and Deadly
Weeks 12-13
Craig Owens, “Outlaws: Gay Men in Feminism”
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Memorial for Craig Owens”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
VI. Public Space
Weeks 14-15
Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, “Sex in Public”
Samuel Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Walt Whitman, Selected Poems
Close reading + critical engagement paper due in week 14. Schedule time for pre-writing, peerediting, and revision.
FINAL EXAM: During the university’s scheduled exam time for this course.
List of Critical Essays and Literary Texts
(Further reading for students, guidance for instructors)
Critical Essays:
Butler, Judith, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination”
Foucault Michel, “Friendship as a Way of Life”
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, “The Black Man’s Burden”
Halberstam, Judith, “The Transgender Look”
Lorde, Audre, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”
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Muñoz, José Esteban, “Performing Disidentifications”
Orgel, Stephen, “Nobody’s Perfect: Or Why Did the English Stage Takes Boys for Women?”
Owens, Craig, “Outlaws: Gay Men in Feminism”
Rich, Adrienne, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”
Rubin, Gayle, “Thinking Sex”
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky, “Queer and Now”
Sinfield, Alan, “Lesbian and Gay Taxonomies”
Somerville, Siobhan, “Scientific Racism and the Invention of Homosexuality”
Literary Texts:
Allison, Dorothy, Trash: Short Stories
Baldwin, James, Giovanni’s Room
Baldwin, James, Go Tell It On the Mountain
Bechdel, Alison, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Burroughs, William S., Naked Lunch
Cather, Willa, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Cather, Willa, “Paul’s Case”
Delany, Samuel, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Dickinson, Emily, Selected Poems
Feinberg, Leslie, Stone Butch Blues
Fire, Dir. Deepa Mehta
Gomez, Jewelle, The Gilda Stories
Hemphill, Essex, Ed., Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men
Hurston, Zora Neele, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Hwang, David Henry, M. Butterfly
Kushner, Tony, Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches.
Looking for Langston, Dir. Isaac Julien
Lorde, Audre, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
My Beautiful Launderette, Dir. Stephen Frears
Nestle, Joan, A Restricted Country
Paris Is Burning, Dir. Jennie Livingston
Stein, Gertrude, Three Lives and Tender Buttons
Tongues Untied, Dir. Marlon T Riggs.
Watermelon Woman, Dir. Cheryl Dunye
Whitman, Walt, Leaves of Grass and Other Writings
Wilde, Oscar, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar, The Portrait of Mr. W.H.
Winterson, Jeanette, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
COURSE POLICIES
Note on Sexually Explicit Material: Some (but by no means all) of the required readings in this
course may include sexually explicit material. Everyone enrolled in the course is expected to
complete all of the assigned readings. If you would prefer not to read such material, you would
be well advised to take a different course.
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Academic Integrity
You are expected to abide by the university’s rules governing academic integrity as codified in
the most recent policies of the Division of Student Affairs. All incidents of suspected academic
misconduct, including cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism,
will be referred immediately to the Honor Council for investigation. Students are expected and
responsible for understanding academic misconduct. See Student Guide To Academic Integrity
handout for additional information. You are responsible for understanding all information
regarding academic integrity. If you have not had an opportunity to review your responsibilities
as a student regarding academic integrity, please refer to the Division of Student Affairs web
sites immediately: www.jpo.umd.edu/conduct/conduct.html and www.shc.umd.edu/code.html
Honor Code and Student Honor Council Policy
“The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic
Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic
integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are
responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware
of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information
on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit:
http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html
Students With Disabilities
The university is legally obligated to provide appropriate accommodations for students with
documented disabilities. If you have, or believe you have, a disability, please contact the Office
of Disability Support Services/Counseling Center immediately for assistance, 0126 Shoemaker,
301 314 7682, www.counseling.umd.edu/DSS. There is a protocol for documenting a disability
in which the student will present a form for me to sign so that I am aware of the accommodations
that Disability Support Services and the student have negotiated.
Attendance and Excused Absences
Students are responsible for attending class everyday. As such, you CANNOT EARN
participation credit if you are absent or fail to complete participation assignments by their due
dates. Being in class is only the first step to earning participation credit. This class will be most
beneficial and productive if each student is present, prepared, and actively engaged. Your
presence in class is essential to your success in the course, as well as the success of the class as a
whole and group dynamic. You are responsible for attending class and being prepared to
participate in discussion and in-class exercises everyday.
University policy states that excused absences include religious observances, participation in
university activities, illness, or circumstances beyond your control.
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Whether you have an unexcused absence or an excused absence, you are still responsible for
course readings and assignments during days you missed. You are also responsible for retrieving
materials for days you are absent.
Inclement Weather Policy/Class Cancellation
Class will only be cancelled if the university is closed due to inclement weather, or if I am
“unfit” (too ill) to teach. If you are unsure about class cancellation due to inclement weather, or
if I am unable to teach for the day, monitor the university’s web site or call 301 314 SNOW and
check your email regularly
Incompletes
Incompletes will only be given in cases of documented emergencies when the bulk of the work
for the course has been satisfactorily completed. Students who fail to submit all the work for the
course will otherwise receive a grade of F.
Late work
The instructor reserves the right not to accept late papers unless you have arranged ahead of time
to submit your work late. Also, no revisions or resubmissions on papers that earned a C or better.
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