ENGLISH 167: Queer Poetics (FEMGEN 167A)

Course Description

This course introduces work by twentieth century and contemporary LGBTQIA poets alongside foundational texts in queer theory and gender and sexuality studies. Reading poems within the theoretical frameworks of scholars like Munoz and Lauren Berlant, we will collectively explore how poetry is a genre uniquely suited to exploring issues of desire, utopianism, futurity, and liberation. Each week, students will have the opportunity to respond to assigned texts either creatively, through a poem, or critically, through a brief analytic piece of writing. In the latter half of the quarter, we will workshop our poems together. No previous coursework in poetry is necessary, though an openness toward experimenting in the form is essential.