ENGL 471: LGBTQ Literature

Course Description

This course surveys primarily contemporary literature by writers who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, or queer. By studying the self-representation and culturally unique perspective of this emerging canon of writers, students in this course understand the emergence of LGBTQ literary traditions and understand the cultural diversity within these traditions. Students learn to identify the aesthetic qualities (such as camp, performativity, coded subtexts, homoeroticism, and the relationship between creativity and sexuality), and historical, political, and social concerns that characterize LGBTQ literary and cultural production. Topics covered include the struggle for civil rights before and after Stonewall, coming out narratives, the negotiation of homophobic cultures, post-colonial writers, and memoirs of the LGBTQ experience, as well as the historical emergence of sexual categories and the literary critique of heteronormativity. This course counts toward the English discipline diversity requirement. Students cannot receive credit for ENGL/WGST 471and ENGL/WGST 571.