2021 Summer Courses

Description: This course examines the role of the outsider in 20th century American literature and culture in relation to key social movements, such as the civil rights movement, second- and third-wave feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement. By looking at outsider figures, such as the female pariah, the queer subject, and the lonely migrant, we will investigate the paradigms that shape American ideas of home and nation. Through lectures, close reading workshops, special assignments, and discussions, we will analyse a wide range of literary forms, including novels, short stories, poetry, and graphic novels, to ask why dissidents, mavericks, and outsiders have become such fascinating figures in American fictional narratives. How do these fictions equip readers to reflect on collective assumptions, values, and practices? How have outsider figures and marginalized voices challenged, as well as shaped, the ever-evolving American literary canon? How have these narratives formed the ways in which we perceive and experience our current historical moment? The reading list includes works by James Baldwin, Shirley Jackson, Richard Wright, Patricia Highsmith, Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever, Louise Erdrich, Adrienne Rich, Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Williams, and Adrian Tomine, among others.

Required Texts:

• Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt (W.W. Norton, 2004, first pub. 1952).
• James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016, first pub.1956).
• Shirley Jackson, We have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics, 2006, first pub.1968).
• Toni Morrison, Sula (Penguin Random House, 2004, first pub. 1973).
• Adrian Tomine, Sleepwalk and other stories (Drawn and Quarterly, 1997).

Short Readings will be provided Online or on myCourses.

Films:

• Carol (2015) – Todd Haynes
• Moonlight (2016) – Barry Jenkins

Evaluation: Short close-reading paper, participation, quizzes, final paper, take-home final exam.

Format: Lecture and discussion.

Description: This course considers the relationship between biography, gender, and fiction, examining the ways in which the autobiographical novel has evolved in response to changing political and social climates. During our intensive month-long course, we will discuss a range of autofictional modes and narratological approaches, including parody, confession, testimony, self-memorialization, manifesto, and feminist revisionist history. The questions we will consider include the following: What are the formal and political interventions offered by women’s autobiographical fiction? How has the evolution of the autobiographical novel transformed the traditionally male genre of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, and, by extension, shaped women’s relationships to education, intellectual life, and public space? How has the autobiographical novel changed the way we understand the self and its representation? And once separated conceptually from a nation, family, and place, how is this reconsidered self recognized? Examining seminal works by Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Jean Rhys, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sylvia Plath, and Jamaica Kincaid, this course provides a framework for discussing the relationship between literature and feminist politics through the lens of the 20th century women’s autobiographical novel.

Besides offering a broad introduction to the genre of autobiographical fiction and an in-depth analysis of some representative novels by early 20th century women writers, the course will provide students with the opportunity to strengthen their skills in literary analysis, close reading, and critical thinking.

Required Texts:

• Orlando: A Biography – Virginia Woolf (1928)
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein (1933)
• Voyage in the Dark – Jean Rhys (1934)
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (1963)
• Lucy – Jamaica Kincaid (1990)

Short readings will be provided online or on MyCourses. Please check MyCourses regularly for announcements during the term.

Evaluation: Short close-reading paper, participation, quizzes, reading responses, take-home final exam.

Format: Lecture and discussion.

Expected Student Preparation: Familiarity with concepts and terminology from cultural studies or a related discipline (IGSF, Communications, Literature, Theatre) is beneficial.

Description: Moving chronologically through the 20th century, this course will be structured around core cultural texts from different periods, communities, and moments in queer history, including novels, poetry, film, theatre, and performance. We will explore the cultural texts themselves, as well as the communities, scenes and cultures that produced, received, and formed around these texts.

The course begins with the turn of the century, examining early 20th century touchstones by artists such as Raclyffe Hall, Jennie June, and Gladys Bentley. This section will draw on scholarship such as George Chauncey’s study of gay culture from 1890-1940 and Susan Stryker’s work on early 20th century transgender history.

The course will then develop through the era between 1940 and 1969, discussing both queer experimental films and queer connections to mainstream Hollywood films of the time. We will also study poetry and literary communities, examining the works of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. We will also explore publications from rising advocacy groups such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.

The next section will focus on post-Stonewall queer culture (1969-1980), looking at performance acts such as the Cockettes and Sylvester, as well as drag performance. The course will then end with the period between 1980-1999, looking at cultural responses to the AIDS crisis (including AIDS theatre), New Queer Cinema, and other late 20th century cultural texts.

Avoiding a reliance on a settler-colonial notion of what constitutes “North American” history, the course will also include discussions of two-spirit identities and Indigenous art and theatre throughout the century, including readings by Qwo-Li Driskill, poetry by Billy-Ray Belcourt and performance by Waaawaate Fobister.

Required Texts:

• Angels in America by Tony Kushner
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• Two-Spirit Acts edited by Jean O’Hara.

All other readings available via myCourses.

Recommended Texts: Gay New York by George Chauncey and Transgender History by Susan Stryker.

Literature will include: Audre Lorde, W.H. Auden, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Cameron Awkward Rich, Radclyffe Hall.

Films will include: Kenneth Anger (Fireworks), Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman), Barbara Hammer, Jack Smith, and others.

Performances will include: Waawaate Fobister, Kent Monkman, Muriel Miguel, Tony Kushner, and the Cockettes.

Evaluation: Short paper, longer paper (or creative alternative), final exam.

Format: Lecture (pre-recorded), optional discussion session, and optional "queer book club".