Gallatin School of Individualized Study
New York University
First-Year Writing Seminar:
Queer Time and Narrative
FIRST-UG 361
Fall 2013
Monday, Wednesday 4:55-6:10
1 Washington Place, Room 601
S. Pearl Brilmyer
spb343@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Monday 3-4:55 and by appointment
Office: 1 Washington Place, Room 622
Course Website: queertimeandnarrative.wordpress.com
Course Description
This course will explore the role of time and narrative in tales of queer desire. How are queer
stories told and what is their relationship to so-called “normative” romantic narratives of
marriage, monogamy, and child rearing? From Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests to Alison Bechdel’s
Fun Home, gay and lesbian artists have suggested that temporal and sexual dissonance are
deeply intertwined—in other words, that feeling “queer” might have something to do with
feeling “out of time.” If queer artists march to the beat of a different drum, then how do they
explore this temporality through narrative? Throughout the course, we will pay special attention
to the role of pace, sequence, and narrative in writing, especially our own. We will consider how
to build both long- and short-form arguments in the form of analytic essays and concise blogposts. Shaping our inquiry will be Virginia Woolf’s modernist novel, To the Lighthouse, Andy
Warhol’s experiments with duration in film, Gertrude Stein’s reflections on repetition and
portraiture, and Alison Bechdel’s recent memoir about queer history and coming out.
Required Texts
Books available at the NYU Bookstore:
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Mariner, ISBN: 0156030470)
Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art (Columbia, ISBN: 0231145187)
Jean Toomer, Cane (Liveright, ISBN: 0871402106)
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Mariner, ISBN: 0618871713)
A course packet available at Advanced Copy Center (552 LaGuardia Place) including:
Eve Sedgwick, “Introduction: Axiomatic” from Epistemology of the Closet
Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle”
Eve Sedgwick, “The Beast in the Closet: James and the Writing of Homosexual Panic”
Judith Halberstam, “Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies” from In a Queer
Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives
Emanuela Bianchi, “The Interruptive Feminine: Aleatory Time and Feminist Politics”
Radclyffe Hall, “Mrs. Ogilvy Finds Herself”
Gertrude Stein, “Portraits and Repetition,” “Ada,” “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene”
“Melanctha”
Nikki Sullivan, “Transmogrification: (Un)becoming Other(s)”
Eva Hayward, “Lessons from a Starfish”
Valerie Rohy, “Three Analogies: History, Psychoanalysis, Literature” from Anachronism
and Its Others: Sexuality, Race, Temporality
Siobhan B. Somerville, “‘Queer to Myself as I Am to You’: Jean Toomer, Racial
Disidentification and Queer Reading” from Queering the Color Line: Race and the
Invention of Homosexuality in America
Jose Munoz, “Photographies of Mourning, Melancholia, and Ambivalence in Van
DerZee, Mapplethorpe, and Looking for Langston” from Disidentifications: Queers of
Color and the Performance of Politics
M. H. Abrams, excerpts from A Glossary of Literary Terms
Audio-visual texts on reserve at the Avery Fisher Center at the Bobst Library and online:
Ingmar Bergman, Persona
Sebastian Lifshitz, Wild Side
Issac Julien, Looking for Langston
Antony and the Johnsons, “Cripple and the Starfish”
In addition to the required readings, I encourage you to follow up whatever topics, authors, or
texts particularly interest you. You could do this by looking up background information,
searching for criticism, or getting further reading recommendations from me or your classmates.
Course Objectives
This course will provide you with the tools to write academic essays and to discover your own
voice as an academic writer. Our readings and viewings of works from various LGBTQ writers
and filmmakers will provide you with a nuanced sense of LGBTQ history, and our close
attention to critical works in queer theory will introduce you to some of the critical conversations
at the heart of queer studies. More basically, this course will sharpen your ability to comprehend
and paraphrase challenging writing and to improve your own interpretation and argumentation
skills.
Writing
Over the course of the semester, you will write two blog posts, three blog post comments, four
précis, and three essays.
1. Blog Posts (200-300 words). This online response, to be presented in class on the following
day, will perform a short, slow reading of a passage from the reading assigned for the following
day and pose an interpretive thesis about the passage. Three times throughout the semester you
will also be responsible for responding to the post of another student in the form of a (100-word)
Comment to be published on the blog.
2. Précis (1 paragraph). In this short assignment you will concisely describe or paraphrase the
argument of the reading for that day. Identifying the thesis and evidence given in the author’s
argument among other elements, you will produce a concise and clear paragraph that you can
reuse in other assignments.
3. Paper I: Queer Reading (1 page, single spaced). In this assignment you will produce a
“queer reading” of a work of fiction from class. How do stories implicitly or indirectly address
questions of sexuality? In this assignment, you will put one work of queer theory (by Sedgwick
or Bianchi) in creative conversation with one short story (by James or Hall), drawing
connections between each text’s understanding of sexuality or desire.
4. Paper II: Slow Reading (1 page, single spaced). Literary critics think carefully about matters
of genre, structure, and language—not only what is said but how it is said. Building on the blog
post assignment, this assignment asks that you perform an extended slow reading of a passage
from a literary text from class. You will choose both a short passage (10-20 lines) and a single
term from M.H. Abrams’ Glossary of Literary Terms, using this term to help you build your
thesis about the passage. Quotations from the passage will provide textual evidence for your
argument.
5. Paper III: Research Paper (3-4 pages, double spaced), This paper will extend or readdress
an argument made in either the Paper I or Paper II, and will require the use of one outside source
(to be found during our visit to Bobst library). It will ask you to rethink the approach taken in
one of these shorter papers and to restructure your argument for a larger format. This will mean
1) making a revised claim 2) widening the scope of the main claim and evidence 3) including an
additional secondary source, and 4) executing a more nuanced and careful argument.
You will be writing drafts for all three essays. We will workshop them in class, either as a whole
class or in small groups. These workshops will be a key part of the course, so plan on having
drafts done on time and ready to be work-shopped. Please be ready to share your work on other
occasions as well; throughout the semester, I will be asking you to read your writing aloud in
class or circulate it in small, informal groups.
Grading
I will base your grades on your class participation, the quality of your essays, and your responses
to the work of others, both written and oral. Each draft of your essay matters (though it will not
get a separate grade). Presentation (i.e. grammar, proof-reading, MLA format) as well as style
and substance counts. All papers should be instances of academic writing, with a thesis,
argument structure, and a conclusion. They should also be standard format—Times New Roman
or equivalent, 12 point font, one inch margins, double spaced. Be sure to cite all sources. All
papers should be turned in, as hard copies, at the beginning of class on the day that they are due.
Final grades will be determined on the basis of the rubric below. I will be using the plus/minus
system for final grades. Please note: to ensure fairness, all numbers are absolute, and will not be
rounded up or down at any stage. Thus a B- will be inclusive of all scores of 80.000 through
83.999. The university does not recognize the grade of A+. This course will not have a final or
midterm exam.
A = 94-100
C = 74-76
A- = 90-93
C- = 70-73
B+ = 87-89
D+ = 67-69
B = 84-86
D = 64-66
B- = 80-83
D- = 60-63
C+ = 77-79
F = 0-60
Assignment
Due Date
Grade %
Two in-class expositions of blog post
Three 100-word comments
Four Précis
Paper I: Queer Reading
Paper II: Slow Reading
Paper III: Research Paper
see presentation schedule
once per unit
9/18, 10/21, 11/18, 11/25
9/25 (draft), 9/30
11/5-6 (draft), 11/11
12/9 (draft), 12/11
10% each
3% each
4% each
15%
15%
25%
Attendance and Lateness Policy
Students are expected to attend every class. If illness or a religious holiday prevents you from
doing so, please notify me, and be sure to get the class notes from another student. Repeated
tardiness will accumulate as absences—every three tardies count as one absence. More than two
unexcused absences will have an adverse effect on your grade.
This class will move very quickly and include many detailed writing assignments. You must
keep up with the pace of this course. Late work will be penalized 1 letter grade for every day that
it is late. As large component of the class will be devoted to in-class presentations, you will be
required to be present and on time. Unless agreed upon beforehand, if you miss a presentation,
you cannot reschedule it.
Please utilize my office hours if you are struggling with this course, particular assignments or
simply want to talk about a paper topic. The more you communicate the better I can help you
push forward.
Trips
We will be going on one very exciting field trip—to the Public Theater to see the debut of Fun
Home, a musical theater adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s popular graphic novel. Tickets have
been purchased for opening night, September 30th at 8PM. If for any reason you are unable to
attend, please let me know immediately.
Writing Support
I strongly encourage you to make use of the Gallatin Writing Center, (Room 423, 4th Floor, 1
Washington Place; amallia.orman@nyu.edu). The Writing Center offers free, individualized,
expert help with writing for any Gallatin student, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any
undergraduate enrolled in a course at Gallatin can visit the Writing Center for assistance with
any writing project. Whether you are writing a lab report, a resume, a term paper, a statement for
an application, or your own poetry, writing center consultants will be happy to work with you.
Their services are not just for writing with “problems.” Getting feedback from an informed
audience is a normal part of a successful writing project. Consultants help students develop
strategies to improve their writing. The assistance they provide is intended to foster
independence. Each student determines how to use the consultant's advice. The consultants are
trained to help you work on your writing in ways that preserve the integrity of your work. If
Gallatin Consultants are busy or if you prefer, there is also the NYU Writing Center (411
Layfayette, 4th Floor; writingcenter@nyu.edu).
A Note on Plagiarism
As a Gallatin student you belong to an interdisciplinary community of artists and scholars who
value honest and open intellectual inquiry. This relationship depends on mutual respect,
responsibility, and integrity. Failure to uphold these values will be subject to severe sanction,
which may include dismissal from the University. Examples of behaviors that compromise the
academic integrity of the Gallatin School include plagiarism, illicit collaboration, doubling or
recycling coursework, and cheating. Please consult the Gallatin Bulletin or Gallatin website
www.gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/policies/policy/integrity.html for a full description of the
academic integrity policy.
Students with Disabilities
New York University provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified
students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Henry and Lucy Moses Center for
Students for Disabilities (CSD), at 212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu
Course Schedule (see final page)
Subject to change based on scheduling needs
UNIT I: QUEER READING
Date
Week 1
Week 2
Week 4
UNIT II: QUEER TIME
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
4-Sep
Dinita Smith, "Queer Theory is Entering the Literary
Mainstream"
M
9-Sep
Eve Sedgwick, "Introduction: Axiomatic" from The
Epistemology of the Closet
W
11-Sep
Henry James, "The Beast in the Jungle;" Abrams
M
16-Sep
Eve Sedgwick, "The Beast in the Closet: James and the
Writing of Homosexual Panic"
W
18-Sep
Emanuela Bianchi, "The Interruptive Feminine: Aleatory
Time and Feminist Politics;" Radclyffe Hall, "Miss Ogilvy
Finds Herself;" Abrams
Précis on Bianchi
M
23-Sep
Workshop Paper I
Paper I draft (two copies)
W
25-Sep
Fun Home
Paper I final draft
M
30-Sep
Fun Home; Fun Home at the Public Theater 8PM
W
2-Oct
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; Abrams
M
7-Oct
To the Lighthouse con't; Abrams
W
9-Oct
To the Lighthouse con’t
M
14-Oct
NO CLASS - FALL RECESS
W
16-Oct
To the Lighthouse con’t; Abrams
M
21-Oct
Gertrude Stein, “Ada,” and “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene,”
“Portraits and Repetition"
W
23-Oct
Gertrude Stein, “Melanctha;” Abrams
M
28-Oct
Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art
W
30-Oct
Chaos, Territory, Art con't
M
4-Nov
Library visit
W
6-Nov
CLASS CANCELLED FOR INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS
Paper II draft due
M
11-Nov
Sebastian Lifshitz, Wild Side; Nikki Sullivan,
"Transmogrification: (Un)becoming Other(s)"
Paper II final draft
W
13-Nov
Eva Hayward, “Lessons From a Starfish;” listen to
Antony and the Johnsons, “Cripple and the Starfish”
M
18-Nov
Valerie Rohy, "Three Analogies: History,
Psychoanalysis, Literature;" Jean Toomer, Cane
W
20-Nov
Jean Toomer, Cane; Abrams
M
25-Nov
Siobhan Somerville, "'Queer to Myself as I Am to You':
Jean Toomer, Racial Disidentification and Queer
Reading"
W
27-Nov
Jean Toomer, Cane
M
2-Dec
Issac Julien, Looking for Langston; José Muñoz,
"Photographies of Mourning"
W
4-Dec
Ingmar Bergman, Persona
M
9-Dec
Workshop
Paper III draft (two copies)
W
11-Dec
Andy Warhol, Screen Tests (watch in class)
Paper III final draft
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Due in class
W
Week 3
Week 5
UNIT III: QUEER NARRATIVE
Class Assignm ent
Response to Sedgwick
Précis on Stein, "Portraits"
Précis on Rohy
Précis on Sommerville