106-436 Que(e)ries: Lesbian and Gay Theory

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Subject Description:

This subject provides a detailed account of the historical development of the category 'homosexuality' and, by corollary, the category 'heterosexuality' in order to contextualise the challenges to those formations offered by the term 'queer'. It negotiates the tenuous, but nevertheless persistent, differences between 'lesbian' and 'gay' without essentialising either category. It enables students to articulate and develop queer perspectives on issues of critical currency, for example, theories of the body, of subject formation, of representation. Taking up various anti-homophobic perspectives, the subject moves between such topics as the discourse of AIDS and the lesbian/gay interrogation of the sex/gender system; re-readings of canonic literature and the homo-erotic address of the fashion industry.

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Prescribed Texts:

Course reader available from the department.

• H Abelove, M A Barale, D M Halperin eds, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, Routledge.
• D Fuss ed, Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, Routledge.
• A Jagose, Queer Theory, MUP.