ENG273Y1Y
Queer Writing
TH6-9
Professor Dana Seitler
Jackman Humanities Building
170 St. George Street, rm. 627
d.seitler@utoronto.ca
Office Hours: Thursday 3:00-5:00 and by appointment
How do art and literature imagine and mediate bodies and pleasures, sexualities and
sexual practices? This course addresses such questions by exploring a range of texts we
will call “queer” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, gender transient, and so forth).
We will ask what a study of sexuality tells us, and how it functions as a useful approach
for reading literary and cultural forms, including how an examination of same-sex themes
in literature reconfigures categories of affinity in literary work not initially understood to
be gay or lesbian. We will investigate different accounts of intimacy, fantasy, and
affinity, paying particular attention to the various ways that race, gender, class, age, and
history itself intersect with representations of queer sexuality. Assignments will include
classical, modern, postmodern, and contemporary literature, criticism, art, film, and
music.
Required Reading Available for Purchase through Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73
Harbord Street)
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet
Plato, The Symposium
William Shakespeare, As You Like it
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Ann Bannon, Beebo Brinker
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
Audre Lorde, Zami
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges aren’t the Only Fruit
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt
All other Required Reading is included in the Course Pack or available on-line as noted:
(Course pack available for purchase at the University Bookstore on St. George)
Lauren Berlant & Michael Warner, “What Does Queer Theory Teach us about X?” in
PMLA 110:3 (May 1995), 343-49. Available through Project Muse and JSTOR.
Judith Butler, “Critically Queer” in Bodies that Matter and “Imitation and Gender
Insubordination” in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, eds. Henry Abelove, Michèle
Aina Barale and David M. Halperin. (CP)
Sappho, If Not, Winter, trans. Ann Carson (New York: Knopf, 2002). Poems: 1, 23, 47,
48, and 94. (CP)
Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle” available through www.projectgutenberg.org
Stephen Crane, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (CP)
Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Queen’s Twin” (CP)
Gertrude Stein, “Susie Asado”; “Preciosilla”; “Miss Fur and Miss Skeene” (CP)
Willa Cather, “Paul’s Case” (CP)
Method of Evaluation:
Two essays, 6-8 pgs. (25% each); Two term tests (for a total of 40%); class participation
(10%).
Note: class participation is not exclusively evaluated on attendance. Truly active participation
and engagement (for example: asking questions, speaking in class, and demonstrating
knowledge of the texts) will also be considered. Given the number of students in this course, I
recognize that not all those who wish to participate may have the chance to do so as often as
they like. All students are therefore encouraged to post questions, reactions, objections, and so
forth to the rest of the class using the “Discussion Board” feature on our Portal/Blackboard
site. Informed comments made both in class and via Blackboard will be the basis for the
participation mark.
Penalty for late essays: Drop one letter grade (and its numeric equivalent) per week with no
extension beyond two weeks. For instance, if you started with an "A" (85), it would become an
A- (82) after two days, B+ (79) after four days, and a B (75) after seven.
Course Expectations and Rules:
Please do not arrive late or leave early; this disrupts the class. You should be prepared to
discuss the texts assigned for the class day, having read and thought deeply about the assigned
material. A successful, in-depth, and sophisticated exploration of our inquiry depends upon
your active involvement in formulating thoughtful responses to and interrogations of the course
materials.
Although convenient, I would appreciate that if you choose to use technology in the classroom,
such as computers, you respect the following requests: do not use your iPods, your MP3
Players, or any musical recording device while class is in session; no wireless operations such
as accessing the internet, your email, or instant messaging services; do not operate cell
phones/Blackberrys/Treos and the like at any point. Please do not text message. Please do
not record any of the classroom lectures/discussions. You are never allowed to video or
digitally record the class proceedings on camcorders, digital cameras of any kind, or cell
phones. Any use of technology during class tests is prohibited. If you need to use a computer
to write your term tests, you will have to arrange that option through Accessibility Services.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unauthorized use of someone else’s materials without citing the source or by
using that work as if it were your own. This includes borrowing ideas as well as words,
without acknowledgement, from print or on-line sources. If you are ever in doubt about what
constitutes plagiarism, please ask me.
Reading Schedule: (subject to change)
First Term
September
10: Introduction to Course
17: Plato, Sappho, and Hedwig (in class film clips from Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
24: Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” and “Critically Queer”
Films (in class): Sadie Benning, “It Wasn’t Love” and Kiki and Herb, “Total Eclipse of
the Heart”
October
1: Shakespeare, As You Like It
8: Eve Sedgwick, “Axiomatic;” Wilde, Dorian Gray
15: Sedgwick, “Epistemology of the Closet;” Dorian Gray (cont.)
22: Foucault, History of Sexuality (Part One); James, “The Beast in the Jungle”
29: Foucault, History of Sexuality (Part Two and Five); Crane, “The Bride Comes to
Yellow Sky”; Jewett, “The Queen’s Twin”
November
5: Gertrude Stein, “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene”; “Susie Asado”; and “Preciosilla”
First Essay Due
12: November Break
19: VirginiaWoolf, Orlando
26: Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
December
3: Term Test
Second Term
January
4: Willa Cather, “Paul’s Case”; Berlant/Warner “What Does Queer Theory Teach us
About X?”
11: Ann Bannon, Beebo Brinker
18: James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
25: Audre Lorde, Zami
February
4: Zami (cont.); Films (in class): Marlon Riggs, Tongues Untied (1989) and Richard
Fung, Sea in the Blood (2000)
11: Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
18: Reading Week, No Class
25: Winterson, Oranges aren’t the Only Fruit
March
4: Oranges (cont.)
11: Monique Truong, The Book of Salt
18: Book of Salt (cont.) Second Essay Due
25: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
April
1: Term Test