GWSS 264 A: Introduction to Queer Cultural Studies

Prof. Stephanie Clare

Course Meeting: T/TH 10:30 – 12:20

Course Location: LOW 216

Office Hours: Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:30 and by appointment, PDL A-419

Email: sclare@uw.edu

ENGL 256/GWSS 264: Introduction to Queer Cultural Studies

Welcome to Queer Cultural Studies! This course is organized around a question that at first glance might appear pedestrian, if not naïve and unintellectual: how can we love one another? I ask this question, however, because I’m genuinely interested in how people who have often been unloved in their families of origin and in the larger culture learn how to love one another and themselves. Where does that love come from? What is it? How might we describe it? Where does it faulter? Why might it be important that we try to honor and harbor it? And what do any of these questions have to do with the analysis of culture and the struggle for intersectional social justice?

To address these questions, this class provides an overview to poetry, fiction, non-fiction and film written by people whom we might identify as LGBT and/or queer but are differentially situated by gender, race, class, ability, and nation. We focus on works produced in the Anglophone world in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Our work is diachronic, by which I mean it is organized by time – we start in the 1950s and then end in the 2020s. Along the way, we consider touch points in the story of queer and/or LGBT politics during this period: lesbian feminism, the sex wars, queer politics, AIDS, women of color and Black feminist thought.

Because this is a 200-level, W credit course, course assignments include low-stakes writing assignments and more structured essays, with rough and final drafts. We will also spend some time in class on writing itself, including spending time on peer reviews.

Broad Learning Goals:

1. Students are able to contextualize and analyze the materials or topics covered, historically, politically, culturally. (Analytical; Writing; Disciplinary)
2. Students develop both an appreciation of literature and a lifelong habit of reading. (General Analytical; Disciplinary)
3. Students are able to perform competent close readings of course texts and similar texts. (Analytical; Disciplinary; Writing)
4. Students improve their writing skills generally, and with regard to writing about literature and culture. (Analytical; Disciplinary; Writing)

Required Texts:

• A course pack is available at Professional Copy and Print. (206) 634-2689
• James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room ISBN: 0345806565
• Minnie Bruce Pratt, S/HE (Dover, FL: Sinister Wisdom, 2024 [1995]). ISBN: 1944981764
• Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle (New York: Bantam Books, 1977 [1973]).

Week One: The Closet

            January 7: Course introduction (discussion of key terms)

            January 9: James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room (1956), pages 1-71 (Part One)

                        (January 10: Zero draft 1 due)

Week Two: Shame

            January 14: James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room (1956), pages 72 – end (Part Two)

January 16: Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), part 1,

pages xiii- 48.

                        (January 17: Zero draft 2 due)

Week Three: 1970s separatism and radicalism

January 21: Radicalesbians (Rita May Brown) “The Woman-Identified Woman,” The Ladder (1970).

Marilyn Frye, “Some Reflections on Separatism and Power,” Sinister Wisdom 6 (1978):

30-39.

            Larry Mitchell, Faggots and their Friends (New York: Calamus Books, 1977), p. 1-47

January 23: Michel Foucault, “Friendship as a Way of Life” and “Sex, Power, and the Politics of Identity,” in Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth: The Essential Works of Michel Foucault. Ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: The New Press, 1984).

January 24: Zero draft 3 due

Week Four: Women of Color Feminism and the Sex Wars

January 28:

Audre Lorde, “The Uses of the Erotic,” “Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving,” “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” in Sister/Outsider: Essays and Speeches (New York: Crossing Press, 1984).

Cheryl Clarke, “Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance” in This Bridge Called My Back, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa (Watertown, MA: Persephone Press 1981).

January 30:

“Diary of a Conference on Sexuality, 1982.” GLQ 17.1 (2010): 49-78.

Amber Hollibaugh and Cherríe Moraga, “What We’re Rollin’ Around in Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism,” in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Ann Snitow et. al (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983).

                        January 31: Zero draft 4 due

Week Five: Writing Break

            February 4: Follow-up discussion, brainstorming and in class writing

                        February 5: Rough Essay 1 due (draft 1), 4pm

            February 6:  Peer review and group revise

Week Six: AIDS and Queer Politics

February 11: Essay 1 due (final draft)

Tongues Untied (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1989) (streaming through UW library)

February 13:

Queer Nation/Anonymous, “Queers Read This” (1990)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay,” Social Text 29 (1991): 18-27.

                        February 14: Zero draft 5 due

Week Seven: Black Queer Politics

February 18:

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

February 20: No class, please watch and write about Paris is Burning (dir. Jennie Livingstone, 1990) (streaming through UW library)

February 21: Zero draft 6 due

Week Eight: Gender, Love, and Desire

February 25: But I’m a Cheerleader (on hold at the library, also streaming on Prime and elsewhere online)

            February 27: Minnie Bruce Pratt, S/HE, p. 1-99

                        February 28: Zero draft 7 due

Week Nine

            March 4:  Minnie Bruce Pratt, S/HE, p. 100 – 210.

March 6: Roy Pérez, “Mark Aguhar’s Critical Flippancy,” Bully Bloggers August 4, 2012.

Young Joon Kwak, “Mark Aguhar,” Brooklyn Rail, July 11, 2016.

                        March 7: Zero draft 8 due

Week Ten

            March 11

Anthony Veasna So, “Human Development,” Afterparties (New York: Harper Collins, 2021). p. 177-212.

Kathryn Harlan, “Fruiting Bodies,” Fruiting Bodies (New York: Norton, 2022).  

                        March 12, 4pm, essay 2 draft

March 13: Course conclusion, peer review

March 18: final draft of essay 2 due

Assignments:

1. Eight zero drafts, 3% each (24% total)

These assignments are meant to get you writing and thinking. They are not about producing a polished text but rather about jotting down notes or thinking in prose. Overall, I want you to be thinking about the reading. What was interesting about it? What don’t you understand? What do you think is great about the text? Is there something that bothers you about it? Is there something strange or surprising? Quite simply, what has reading the text made you think? You might want to focus on one passage of the text in particular, or you might want to draw connections between this text and another text. There is no right or wrong here – as long as you are writing about the course material. The simple goal is just to think in words, to write freely.

Behavioral psychologists claim that we can only concentrate on writing for about 25 minutes at a time. For this reason, I ask that you spend 25 minutes on each of these assignments. Turn off the Internet. Turn off your phone. Find a space where you will have no distractions. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and then, 25 minutes later, you will be done!

Generally, students write about 500-700 words. If your text is shorter than this, please either put in more time, or write me an email so we can meet to talk about it.

Please submit your free writing assignments on Canvas. They are always due on Fridays, at 5pm.

1. Two academic essays, 66%, 33% each including 5% for the rough draft

You will submit two papers that respond to an assigned essay question. I will give you time in class to brainstorm and to workshop your writing. I will also provide you with detailed instructions for the papers.

1. Participation, 10 %

Students learn in different ways, some are quiet, others are quite vocal. That is fine. I expect all students to come to class (on time) having read the assigned reading and prepared to make sense of it. The course will make use of group work and class discussion, and participation (including active listening) in these forums counts towards your grade. I may also assign some in-class writing exercises, which I will not expect to be polished, but they will count towards participation based on pass/fail.

English Department’s Statement of Values:

The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use is powerful and holds the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world—skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”

As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities.  Our disciplinary commitments to the study of language, literature, and culture require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and class.  These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue.  We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.

Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, genders, national origins, political views, and citizenship status; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.

Course Policies         

• Please have the course pack or text(s) available during our class

• Please turn off your phones in class

• Please submit work on time. If this will be a problem, email me before the due date. Otherwise, late submissions will not be accepted.

• Please submit all your assignments on Canvas. I will be running your assignments through the university’s plagiarism program.

• Please do not use generative text AI to write your papers. This will count as plagiarism.

Statement on Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university’s imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas.

When an instance of suspected or alleged academic dishonesty by a student arises, it shall be resolved according to the procedures standard at the University of Washington. These procedures are listed here: https://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf

Plagiarism is:

• Copying any idea, piece of information, or expression of an idea (words, phrasing) without appropriate acknowledgement in the form of an accurate citation, reference to the source in the bibliography, and quotation marks around any words or phrases which are not the student’s own.

• Submitting a paper that has been purchased or written by another person or AI.

Also prohibited by the Student Conduct Code:

• Resubmitting any work for which credit has already been obtained in another course or for which credit is being sought concurrently.

I consider plagiarism to be a serious violation not only of university policies, but of the vital function of the university in a democratic society. I will follow university procedures in dealing with plagiarism.

If you are not sure what plagiarism is and is not, ask me! Ask before you turn in the assignment!

Also, consult this helpful guide on how not to plagiarize by Margaret Proctor of the University of Toronto:

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize

Statement on Accessibility

Should any student require accommodation for physical or learning disabilities, please talk to me or see UW’s Accessibility Resource Office. Information on this office can be found here: http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/

Statement on Religious Accommodation

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).

Grading Scale: