English 186 - Winter, 2012

Literature, Sexuality, & Gender

Class Information

Instructor: Freeman, Elizabeth
CRN: 53869
Time: TR 9:00-10:20
Location: 158 Olson

Description

This course will explore the relationship between literature and its genres, on the one hand, and the system of gender/sexuality that organizes Western culture, on the other. We will seek to understand how various "schools" of European-and American literature (Romanticism, sentimentalism, realism/naturalism, Decadence, modernism, and postmodernism) are shaped by the categories of male and female, and homo- and heterosexual, and how women and sexual minorities have engaged with these literary schools. However, one twist to this course is that these categories cannot be understood without understanding how race shapes gender/sexuality, and how gender/sexuality shapes race. We will therefore begin with two classics of American race relations, Harriet Beecher Stowe's *Uncle Tom's Cabin* and Richard Wright's *Native Son* to map out the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in the U.S., before turning to texts written by women and sexual minorities both African American and white, British and American. You should emerge with both an enhanced sense of what gender/sexuality and race mean, and a new understanding of literary history.

Please plan to buy the exact editions we are using in class, whether new or used, at the bookstore or elsewhere. Publisher info and ISBNs provided for those purchasing outside the bookstore. There will also be a course reader with poems, short stories, and theoretical articles, available at Classical Notes.

Grading

Midterm Paper : 15%
Final Paper: 25%
Final Exam: 25%
Written and oral class participation: 15%
Homework assignments and quizzes: 20%

Texts

Native Son 9780061148507, Richard Wright
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dover Thrift Edition 9780486440286, Harriet Beecher Stowe
A Visitation of Spirits, 9780375703973, Randall Kenan
Orlando, Harvest Books 9780156701600, Virginia Woolf
Passing, Norton Critical Edition 9780393979169, Nella Larsen