Assignments & Readings | ENGL 326 / WGST 304 MO Spring 2015 | Drew University

Assignments

Major Papers: You will be required to write up to three formal papers, each 4-6 pages in length, that engage each of the novels and theoretical and critical texts of the class. Papers will be collected three times during the quarter, approximately in Week 5, Week 10, and Finals Week. You must complete a minimum of two papers. Each paper will be graded and the average of the number completed will constitute 40% of your final grade.

Major Paper Proposal Memo: As part of your Major Paper research and writing process, you will be required to generate a 1-page research proposal in business memo format. Then you arrange a conference to go over your proposal. Proposals themselves are not graded, but an incomplete or missing memo will affect your Major Paper grade. Proposals should be discussed and approved at least a week prior to the Major Paper's due date.

Identity Log: Over the course of the quarter, you will keep and maintain a weekly "identity log" or "iLog," recording, detailing, and thinking about your own identities and identifications, particularly those mediated by and through the course's keywords. Your "iLog" will function as a kind of identity workbook, an analytical and metacognitive journal, connecting your observations and experiences to the texts, theories, and ideas of the class. Periodically, you will be given specific prompts or experiments, and you will share your logs in class and via the class's blog. These weekly logs will be evaluated on completion and your critical, analytical engagement with the prompt. Each log will earn a check, check plus, check minus, or zero, and in total, will constitute 10% of your final grade.

iLog #1: Imagining Sex(uality): What is sex? What is sexuality? For this initial iLog, consider your personal definitions of these terms. Think on the first weeks' readings and post a single image of yourself or something related to your definitions. Then describe the image in its caption. Tell us what the photo is about and reveals about your definitions of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Please tag your image with the terms "sex," "sexuality," and "iLog 1" (without the quotations). Make sure to sign your iLog. Post conscientiously: these images will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

iLog #2: Imagining Gender(s): What is gender? How is it defined, constructed, performative? How does it intersect with the body, sexuality, race, class, space, nation? For this second iLog, consider your personal definitions of gender. Think on these weeks' readings and post a single image of yourself or something related to your definitions. Then describe the image in its caption. Tell us what the photo is about and reveals about your definitions of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Post conscientiously: these images will be public and should be appropriate to the class and your personal comfort level.

iLog #3: Queer(ing) Race: Brian in Passing says provocatively, "If I knew that, I'd know what race is" (38). For this iLog, consider our definitions of race, gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Think on the readings on race and post a single image, YouTube video, news story, or something that conceptualizes, challenges, or critiques the intersection of race and queer. Then articulate what the artifact you selected is about and reveals about your understandings of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Post conscientiously: these artifacts will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

iLog #4: Queer(ing) Space: Using the quotes below as inspirations, consider the intersection of queer and space and post a single image, YouTube video, news story, or something that conceptualizes, challenges, or critiques the intersection of space and queer. If possible, articulate the organization, overlap, and even incommensurability of an ideal or abstract queer space and actual, physical, material, geographical space. Then articulate what the artifact you selected is about and reveals about your understandings of these terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Post conscientiously: these artifacts will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

"We are describing a constellation of practices that everywhere disperses heterosexual privilege as a tacit but central organizing index of social membership" (Berlant & Warner 555).

"'Queer space' refers to the place-making practices within postermodernism in which queer people engage and it also describes the new understandings of space enabled by the production of queer counterpublics" (Halberstam 6).

iLog #5: Queer(ing) Bodies: Though McRuer and Wilkerson are specifically thinking about the ways disabilities studies can be deployed to critique and disrupt normative bodies, how might we think more broadly about ways to queer understandings of bodies, to queer representations of different bodies, to queer bodies themselves. For this iLog, post a single image of picture of yourself or well-known figure or public person (be careful about appropriating someone randomly from the web). Then articulate what the image you selected reveals about your understandings of queer bodies. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions about embodied difference, disability, body modification, and trans* theory. Then, take a look at each other's iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Post conscientiously: these artifacts will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

iLog #6: Imagining the Oankali: For this exercise, draw or create a one-page visual representation (8.5" x 11") of what you imagine Octavia Butler's Dawn's "Oankali" to look like, be like, act like, live like. How do you represent or convey something conveyed only through words, inferences, and expectations? Consider the initial descriptions of Jdahya: "His tentacles seemed to solifiy into a second skin--dark patches on his face and neck, a dark, smooth-looking mass on his head...He looked remarkably human now. Was it only the tentacles that gave him that sea-slug appearance? His coloring hadn't changed. The fact that he has no eyes, nose, or ears still disturbed...His skin was cool and almost too smooth to be real flesh..." (23). You can hand draw, use mixed media (but keep it flat), use digital tools. Be creative and think critically. Given that one of the central tensions in Dawn is a decentering of the "human," consider what it means to try to represent something alien, monstrous, different, nonhuman, posthuman, even inhuman.

Critical Context & Question Presentation -- You will be a required to sign up for an oral presentation individually or in small groups. For your presentation, research a topic relevant to the week's texts, generate a critical question to get class discussion started, and create a single-spaced, 1-page handout for the whole class. Presentations are 5-7 minutes and may include media.

Queer Theory Critical Review -- a 500-700 word analytical review of a text you would think could be or should be included in our class. Critical Reviews are due by the last day of instruction and will be posted to the class blog.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

What is Close Reading?

Readings

There are three novels and two course readers required by the class. The novels are available via the Drew Bookstore (or through any reputable bookseller). The course readers are available for purchase in the main English office in 108 Sitterly House. Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The three touchstone novels for the class are:

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. New York: Mariner, 2006.

Butler, Octavia. Adulthood Rites. New York: Aspect, 1988.

Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Norton, 2007.

Moreover, the following is a full list of the class readings by week:

Week 1: HISTORY

Marcus, Steven. "Introduction." Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Ed. and Trans. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books, 1962. xxxi-liii.

Freud, Sigmund. "The Sexual Aberrations." Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Ed. and Trans. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books, 1962. 1-38.

Ellis, Havelock. "Sexual Inversion." Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6). The Project Gutenberg eBook. 8 Oct. 2004. 30 Nov. 12. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13611/13611-h/13611-h.htm.

Ellis, Havelock. "The Study of Sexual Inversion." Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6). The Project Gutenberg eBook. 8 Oct. 2004. 30 Nov. 12. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13611/13611-h/13611-h.htm.

Week 2: SEXUALITY

Foucault, Michel. "We 'Other Victorians.'" The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York, Vintage Books, 1978. 1-14.

Rubin, Gayle S. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 3-44.

Week 3: DESIRE

Foucault, Michel. "The Repressive Hypothesis." The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York, Vintage Books, 1978. 15-50.

Halperin, David M. "Is There a History of Sexuality?" The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 416-431.

Lorde, Audre. "The Uses of the Erotic." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 339-343.

Week 4: GENDER

Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 116-120.

Butler, Judith. "The Heterosexual Matrix in 'Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.'" Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990. 42-44.

Rich, Adrienne. "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 227-254.

Wittig, Monique. "One is Not Born a Woman." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 103-109.

Week 5: RACE & CLASS

Ferguson, Robert A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 191-196.

Hammonds, Evelynn. "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality." differences. 6.2+3 (1994): 126-145.

Muñoz, Jose Estaban. "Introduction: Performing Disidentifications." Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 1-34.

Cohen, Cathy J. "Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?" GLQ. 3 (1997): 437-465.

Week 6: QUEER

"Queers Read This." Queer Resource Directory. June 1990. 3 Aug. 2013. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/misc/text/queers.read.this.

Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 187-191.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Queer and Now." Tendencies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. 1-22.

Butler, Judith. "Critically Queer." GLQ. 1.1 (1993): 17-32.

Warner, Michael. "What's Wrong with Normal?" The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: The Free Press, 1990. 41-80.

Week 7: SPRING RECESS: NO CLASSES

Week 8: TRANS*

Stryker, Susan. "(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies." The Transgender Studies Reader Eds. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. 1-18.

Lane, Riki. "Trans as Bodily Becoming: Rethinking the Biological as Diversity, Not Dichotomy." Hypatia. 24.3 (Summer 2009): 136-157.

Spade, Dean. "Preface." Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2011. 7-18.

Spade, Dean. "Introduction: Rights, Movements, and Critical Trans Politics." Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2011. 19-48.

Week 9: SPACE

Sedgwick, "Epistemology of the Closet." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 45-61.

Edelman, Lee. "Tearooms and Sympathy, or, The Epistemology of the Water Closet." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 553-574.

Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. "Sex in Public." Critical Inquiry. 24.2 (Winter 1998): 547-566.

Delany, Samuel. "Writer's Preface." Time Square Red, Time Square Blue. New York: NYU Press, 1999. xiii-xx.

Delany, Samuel. "...Three, Two, One, Contact: Times Square Red." Time Square Red, Time Square Blue. New York: NYU Press, 1999. 111-199.

Week 10: TIME

Freeman, Elizabeth. "Introduction." GLQ: Queer Temporalities. 13.2-3 (2007): 159-176.

Dinshaw, Carolyn, Lee Edelman, Roderick A. Ferguson, Carla Freccero, Elizabeth Freeman, Judith Halberstam, Annamarie Jagose, Christopher Nealon, and Nguyen Tan Hoang. "Theorizing Queer Temporalities: A Roundtable Discussion." GLQ: Queer Temporalities. 13.2-3 (2007): 177-196.

Halberstam, Judith. "Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies." In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: NYU Press, 2005. 1-21.

Week 11: FUTURE

Edelman, Lee. "The Future is Kid Stuff." No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. 1-32.

Muñoz, Jose Estaban. "Introduction: Feeling Utopia." Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. 1-18.

Muñoz, Jose Estaban. "Queerness as Horizon: Utopian Hermeneutics in the Face of Gay Pragmatism." Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. 19-32.

Week 12: DIS/ABILITY

McRuer, Robert and Abby L. Wilkerson. "Cripping the (Queer) Nation." GLQ. 9.1-2 (2003): 1-23.

McRuer, Robert. "As Good As It Gets: Queer Theory and Critical Disability." GLQ. 9.1-2 (2003): 79-105.

"Historical HIV/AIDS Posters." AVERT: AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 30 Nov. 2012. http://www.avert.org/aids-posters.htm.

"AIDS Education Posters." University of Rochester Libraries. 2011. 30 Nov. 2012. http://aep.lib.rochester.edu/.

Week 13: TECHNOLOGY

Turing, Alan. "The Imitation Game in 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence.'" Mind. 65:236 (Oct. 1950): 433-435.

Halberstam, Judith. "Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the Age of the Intelligent Machine." Feminist Studies. 17.3 (Autumn 1991): 439-460.

Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-182.

Week 14: FAILURE

Halberstam, Judith. "Introduction: Low Theory." The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NJ: Duke University Press, 2011. 1-26.

Halberstam, Judith. "Children and Failure." The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NJ: Duke University Press, 2011. 118-120.

Halberstam, Judith. "Animating Failure." The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NJ: Duke University Press, 2011. 173-187.

"dys4ia." Auntie Pixelante. 9 Mar. 2012. 30 Nov. 2012. http://www.auntiepixelante.com/?p=1515. (game)

"Lim." Merritt Kopas: Gender / Space / Bodies / Play. 29 Aug. 2012. 30 Nov. 2012. http://mkopas.net/2012/08/lim/. (game)

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