English 186 - Fall, 2020

Literature, Sexuality & Gender

Class Information

Instructor: Hughes, William
CRN: 53267
Time: TR 12:10-1:30
GE Areas: Writing Experience

Description

This course will begin with Modernism, often described as the first flowering of self-consciously LGBTQ literature. After warming up with some transgender poetry by POC and white writers, we will start with a seemingly heterosexual Modernist text, then move on to two queer of color/white queer Modernist classics, Nella Larsen's Passing and Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons. Then we will turn to postmodern and postcolonial works involving sexual and gender normativity and transgression as well as race and colonialism. 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, Black Scottish, and TBA if online, and gay, straight, queer, trans, male, and female.

Please note below that grading and texts are different according to whether instruction is online or face-to-face.

Grading

TBA if online

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

Texts

Cereus Blooms at Night*, Mootoo, Shani
Trumpet, Kay, Jackie
*Only if course is in person
Passing, Larsen, Nella
The Sun Also Rises*, Hemingway, Ernest