English 165 - Fall, 2012

Topics in Poetry

Topic: The Poetry of Same-Sex Love and Gender Transgression

Class Information

Instructor: Freeman, Elizabeth
CRN: 43456
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Location: 229 Wellman

Description

How do modern poets engage with a tradition of same-sex love and gender transgression in Western literature that goes back at least as far as Sappho and Plato? Is there an LGBTQ tradition in modern poetry? How does poetic form encode “the love that dare not speak its name”? What is queer reading? What role does poetry have in social change? This course will introduce students to reading poetry and to a range of poets whose work engages with same-sex love and gender transgression. We will examine the poets in terms of both the sources they draw upon (Sappho, Plato, Ovid, the Bible, Shakespeare, and so on) and their own interrelation. We will also examine the way that form “expresses” erotic energies that may not be manifest as content, and the transformations in form itself as poetry begins to be linked to politics.

Grading

Probably:
Short paper 20%
Long paper 25%
Participation 20%
Final Exam 20%
Quizzes 15%

Texts

Leaves of Grass (1855 Edition), Walt Whitman
Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein
Howl, Allen Ginsberg
Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose, Adrienne Rich
My Alexandria, Mark Doty
Bird Eating Bird, Kristin Naca