English 333
Gay and Lesbian Literature: The Tradition in English
Harriette Andreadis
Office: 245D Blocker; phone: 845-9670 (direct line);
English Dept.: 845-3452;
Email: h-andreadis@tamu.edu;
This course will survey the historical and social construction
of homosexuality as it is expressed by the literature of English
and American writers, both women and men. Issues that will be
addressed include: the development of homosexual subcultures
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the construction
of female "romantic friendship," the influence of the
late nineteenth-century sexologists and of Freud, and the conflicts
associated, at different times for men and for women, with emerging
notions of homosexual and lesbian identities. Class discussion
will emphasize changing social perspectives in defining taboo
sexual behaviors as articulated by literary representations.
The latter half of the course will focus particularly on the
far-reaching consequences, for both homosexual and heterosexual
persons, of the relatively recent definitions of identity based
on sexuality.
TEXTS:
- Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
- E.M. Forster, Maurice
- Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage
- Claire Morgan (Patricia Highsmith), The Price of Salt
- John Rechy, Numbers
- Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle
- Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance
- Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
- Jeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
- Xerox packet (classical and early modern poetry; story by
Ronald Firbank; plays by Oscar Wilde and Joe Orton)
TOPICS:
- Classical Constructions of Homosexuality
- Traditions of Male Friendship & Female Romantic Friendship
- The Sexologists: Homosexuality as Identity
- Bloomsbury: Sexualities in '20s London
- Mid-Twentieth Century and After: Homosexuality in a Post-Modern
World
A comprehensive daily schedule of readings and written assignments
will be distributed in class.
Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies in the USA and
Canada |