EN3G9-15 Queering the Literary Landscape: LGBTQ+ Literature and Culture in the Contemporary World
Introductory description
EN3G9-15 Queering the Literary Landscape: LGBTQ+ Literature and Culture in the Contemporary World
Module aims
This module complements the 15-CAT module “EN372: Queer and There: Queer Theory and the History of Sexuality in the Global Context.” It aims to familiarise students with a range of literature by LGBTQ+ writers, filmmakers, and artists, largely from the Anglophone world. Through critical and theoretical readings, students will learn about the history of queer representation in the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the topics we will cover are: the reclaiming of the gay and lesbian past, the effect of obscenity trials on queer expression, narrating the AIDS crisis, homosociality, queer reading practices, the development of the LGBT canon, intersectionality (with critical methodologies surrounding race, gender, imperialism, and historical and anthropological approaches), and remediation. We will also look at debates around introducing queer identities to children through literary texts. A particular focus will be on fiction and the novel as forms that have a particular (though not necessarily privileged) relationship to questions of queer interiority and the narration of same-sex acts and identities.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Week 1: Introduction. How to Study the Literature of Homosexuality.
Week 2: The History of Queer Expression 1: Mädchen in Uniform and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness
Week 3: The History of Queer Expression 2: Basil Dearden’s Victim and Rodney Garland’s The Heart in Exile
Week 4: The History of Queer Expression 3: James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour
Week 5: Backward Glances: Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith and Park Chan Wook’s The Handmaiden
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Queer Culture in Britain 1: Jackie Kay’s Trumpet
Week 8: Queer Culture in Britain 2: Allan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming Pool Library OR Colm Toibin’s The Story of the Night
Week 9: Queer Culture in Southern Africa 1: K. Selo Duiker’s Thirteen Cents
Week 10: Queer Culture in Southern Africa 2: Tatamkhulu Africa’s Bitter Eden
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge and understanding of the set texts in their cultural, political, and social contexts
- Deploy advanced analytical and critical skills through close reading of criticism and theory
- Demonstrate a conceptual understanding that enables the development and sustaining of a critical argument
- Produce work that displays the qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring the exercise of personal responsibility and decision-making, along with collaboration and collective engagement
- Make appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources
- Develop a conceptual understanding of some of the key issues and problems surrounding the production and reception of queer literature and the representation of gender and sexuality
- Refine their skills in working with theoretical materials and in using theory in conjunction with literature
- Be able to analyse the importance of literary and theoretical engagements with the world we live in
- Develop an original research topic focused on the module’s special topic
- Engage with queer culture that extend beyond the literary by applying the concepts and methodologies provided by the module to a different genre of cultural production
Subject specific skills
No subject specific skills defined for this module.
Transferable skills
No transferable skills defined for this module.
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour 30 minutes (9%) |
| Private study | 136 hours 30 minutes (91%) |
| Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
Reading & research
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A1
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Assessment 1 | 30% | Yes (extension) | |
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One 1,000-word analytical essay on an independently chosen non-literary text (such as a film, work of art or music, webpage, phone app, game, etc.) not included on the module, to include a rationale for whether/why the module might expand to include this text in future |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Assessment 2 | 70% | Yes (extension) | |
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One 3,500-word essay with an explicit use of theory and criticism |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
Tabula & face to face
Courses
This module is Optional for:
- Year 3 of UENA-Q300 Undergraduate English Literature
- Year 3 of UENA-QP36 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing
- Year 4 of UENA-QP37 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing with Intercalated Year
- Year 4 of UENA-Q301 Undergraduate English Literature with Intercalated Year
- Year 3 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 4 of UENA-VQ33 Undergraduate English and History (with Intercalated year)
- Year 4 of UENA-QW35 Undergraduate English and Theatre Studies with Intercalated Year
This module is Core option list C for:
- Year 4 of UCXA-QQ38 Undergraduate Classics and English (with Intercalated Year)
This module is Option list B for:
- Year 3 of UTHA-QW34 Undergraduate English and Theatre Studies
This module is Option list C for:
- Year 3 of UPHA-VQ72 Undergraduate Philosophy and Literature
- Year 4 of UPHA-VQ73 Undergraduate Philosophy and Literature with Intercalated Year