Queen’s University 2011-12
English 277: Literature and Gender (Winter Term)
Instructor: Dr. Jeremy De Chavez
Teaching Assistants: Katelynn Enright, Laura Kinderman, and Irena Lazarevic
Location: MIL 105
Time: M 4-530, W 230-4
Blog: http://engl277.blogspot.com/
Course Description:
This course examines how gender (and its intersections with sexuality, class, and race) shape authorship, reception, and representation. Our aim is to discover whether attentiveness to sexual difference makes us more perceptive and purposeful readers. In doing so, we engage a broad selection of literary and theoretical texts representing diverse cultures and historical periods. Some of the authors under consideration will be Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin, Hélène Cixous, Michel Houellebecq, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Lan Chang, and Chuck Palahniuk. Further, selections from feminist, psychoanalytic, and poststructuralist criticism will guide our exploration of the vital but contested relations between literature and gender. We will be vigilantly critical of instances when literature reinscribes the values of the dominant patriarchal order while being receptive to moments when literary texts offer new and more ethical ways to imagine and to live gendered and racial selves.
Marks:
1. Essay 1 (1000 words) 10%
2. Essay 2 (1500 words) 30%
3. In-class activities 10%
4. Attendance 10%
5. Final Exam 40%
_____
100%
Schedule:
Week 1: Provocations
Jan 9: Introduction
Jan 11: Anais Nin. “The Hungarian Adventurer” and "The Boarding School" in Delta of Venus.
Week 2: Subjectivity
Jan 16: Freud, Sigmund. From Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Part 1,
“The Sexual Deviations”) in The Psychology of Love.
Jan 18: Freud, Sigmund. From Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Part 2,
“Infantile Sexuality” and Part 3, “Transformations of Puberty”) in The
Psychology of Love.
Week 3: (Feminine) Desire
Jan 23: Freud, Sigmund. Fragment of an Analysis of Hysteria (Dora) in
The Psychology of Love.
Jan 25: Freud, Sigmund. “On Female Sexuality” in The Psychology of Love.
Nin, Anais. “Lilith”, “Manuel”, "Marianne" and “The Veiled Woman” in Delta of
Venus.
Venus.
Week 4: Sexual Politics
Jan 30: Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own (1/2)
Suggested Reading:
Moi, Toril. “Introduction: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Part I:
Anglo-American Feminist Criticism” in Sexual/ Textual Politics
Feb 1: Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own (1/2)
Week 5: Femininities I: Écriture féminine
Feb 6: Cixous, Hélène. Stigmata (Parts I and II)
Suggested Reading:
Moi, Toril. “Part II: French Feminist Theory” in Sexual/ Textual Politics
Essay Topics Announced
Suggested Reading:
Moi, Toril. “Part II: French Feminist Theory” in Sexual/ Textual Politics
Essay Topics Announced
Feb 8: Cixous, Hélène. Stigmata (Parts III and IV)
Week 6: Femininities II: (M)Othering
Feb 13: Chang, Lan. Hunger.
Feb 15: Chang, Lan. Hunger.
Week 7: Reading Week
Week 8: Femininities III: Third World Woman
Feb 27: Toer, Pramoedya. Footsteps
Feb 29: Toer, Pramoedya. Footsteps
Week 9: Masculinities I: Masculinity in Crisis(?)
Mar 5: Houllebecq, Michel. Whatever (1/2)
Mar 7: Houllebecq, Michel. Whatever (2/2)
Mar 7: Houllebecq, Michel. Whatever (2/2)
Week 10: Masculinities II: Hypermasculinity
March 12: Film: 300.
March 14: Film: Fight Club.
Week 11: Queer Identities I:
March 19: Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club (Chapters 1-17)
March 21: Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club (Chapters 18-30)
Week 12: Queer Identities II: Closeted Texts
March 26: Miller, Frank. 300.
March 28: Miller, Frank. 300.
Week 13: Queer Identities III: Trans Identities
April 2: TBA
April 4: TBA
