106-436 Queer Theory Ten Years On

Formerly available as 106-087. Students who have completed 106-087 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fouth year honours in English, cultural studies or women's studies, see Honours entry.

This subject considers sexuality through a strategic focus on the recent rise and fall of queer theory. Coined as a phrase in the early 1990s and pronounced dead by many scholars barely a decade later, queer theory dramatises many of the classificatory, representational and political/ethical problems that structure modern understandings of sexuality more generally. Through the interpretative frame of queer theory, this subject considers the historical development of categories of sexual identity, including heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and post-queer formulations of transgender subjectivities. 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, of political activism. Taking up various anti-homophobic perspectives, the subject moves between such topics as drag queen/drag king subcultures and the discourse of AIDS; re-readings of classic literary and film texts and public sex cultures.

Two essays of 2500 words each for 4th year students 50% each (due mid-semester and at the end of semester respectively) and two essays of 3000 words each for masters students 50% each (due mid-semester and at the end of semester respectively).

A subject reader will be available.