ENG 272 - Queer Literature

Credits: 3

Description
Overview of gay and lesbian literary figures from Western antiquity to present. Instruction explores love and sex between same-sex relationships through a historical and theoretical framework. Emphasis on rereading texts to discover gay and lesbian themes ignored or concealed in more traditional textural analyses.

Student Learning Outcomes

Trace the literary, social, and political evolution of gay and lesbian literature.
Demonstrate an understanding that the literary, social, and political history of gay men is radically different from lesbian women.
Chart the varying images of homosexuality that have been constructed over time.
Demonstrate an awareness about a hidden heritage of lost or unfamiliar homoerotic texts.
Explain how the psychological influence of sexologists and of Freud on sexual identity, gender roles resulted in the categories such as “sexual inverts” and “the third sex.”
Recognize the issues involved in naming within the Queer community itself.
Recognize heterosexism, explain how it operates, and how lesbian and gay people have had to learn the rituals of deceit, impersonation, and appearance in order to survive it.

Prerequisite: ENG 100 or ENG 101 or ENG 101H or ENG 113 with a grade of C- or higher; or Department Chair or Instructor approval