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Class number:
2922
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Title: The Queer Premodern |
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Department: English |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: No |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 15 |
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Current enrollment: 14 |
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Available seats: 1 |
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Start date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 |
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End date: Friday, May 9, 2025 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: TR: 8:00AM-9:15AM, 115V - 106 |
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Instructor(s): Staples, James |
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Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite: C- or better in English 260 or ENGL 160. |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement |
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Note: For majors enrolled before December 2023, this course fulfills the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written before 1700. For majors enrolled after January 2024, this course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement and the UVSJ requirement or may be an elective/additional literature or film course. |
Course Description:
In The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, Michel Foucault insisted that sexual identity is a modern phenomenon, coming into existence at the end of the nineteenth century. Four years later, John Boswell provocatively described a flourishing "gay" subculture in twelfth-century Europe. Rather than disprove Boswell's fantastic claim, Foucault seriously considered it, and he began his history of sexuality anew to inquire what a "premodern" sexuality might entail. In this course, we will develop our own theory of "premodern queerness" by considering the acts and identities of premodern subjects in medieval literature, read alongside historical documents, theology, and queer theory. Rather than simply contrast a premodern sexuality to (post)modern queerness, we will consider the ways the past can inspire new horizons of possibility for queer expression. |