Title: GAY AND LESBIAN LITERATURE

PRQ:

In this course, we will read American and British literature with lesbian and gay themes and by gay and lesbian writers. We’ll start with a few short selections by writers such as Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Whitman, and then we’ll focus mainly on literature since 1900. We will discuss how gay and lesbian writers of various ethnicities have adapted and reinvented literary genres and traditions to explore identity, coming out, love, and family among other themes. We will consider how our society’s ideas of sexuality and gender have changed and continue to change and how literature participates in these changes.  Class format will be a mix of discussion and lecture.

prepared, informed participation in class discussion; three short (2-page) critical response papers (analyzing course readings); one in-class presentation; one research paper (8-10 pages); two exams (short answer and essay).

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.; Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room.; Isherwood, Christopher.A Single Man.; Lorde, Audre.  Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.; Islas, Arturo.The Rain God.; Kushner, Tony.Angels in America.; Obejas, Achy.Memory Mambo.; Hemphill, Essex. Ceremonies.; Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home.; McDonald, Sandra. Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories.