English 186 - Spring, 2018

Literature, Sexuality, & Gender

Class Information

Instructor: Freeman, Elizabeth
CRN: 81978
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Location: 206 Olson

Description

This course will begin with Modernism, often described as the first flowering of self-consciously LGBTQ literature. But we will start with a seemingly heterosexual Modernist novel, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, both to hone our skills at reading for alternatives to heterosexuality and to see how gender norms and racial formations intersect. We’ll then move on to two Modernist classics, Nella Larsen’s Passing and Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons, before turning to postmodern and postcolonial novels, plays, poems, and short stories involving sexual and gender normativity and transgression. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on the intersections of race with gender/sexuality, and of literary style with politics and social identity. Authors are Anglo-American, African American, French, Chicanx, Native American, Caribbean-Canadian, Black Scottish, and Asian American, gay, straight, queer, trans, male, and female.

Grading

Midterm Paper 20%
Final Paper 25%
Final Exam 20%
Ongoing Written Class Participation 25%
Quizzes 10%
Oral Particpation: up to 5% Extra Credit

Texts

The Sun Also Rises, ISBN 978-0743297332, Hemingway, Ernest
Passing, ISBN 978-0142437278, Larsen, Nella
Tender Buttons, ISBN 978-0872866355, Stein, Gertrude
A Visitation of Spirits, ISBN 978-0375703973, Kenan, Randall
Cereus Blooms at Night, ISBN 978-0802144621, Mootoo, Shani
Trumpet, ISBN ISBN 978-0375704635, Kay, Jackie
The Book of Salt, ISBN 978-0618446889, Truong, Monique