Lecture (LEC)

• COLL INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inq

• Above class COLL Intensive Writing section
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Topic: That's so queer

¿That¿s so queer!¿ ¿ This exclamation might indicate something is strange or odd, and more recently queer has been used to designate nonnormative identities, especially LGBTQ+. In this class we will survey theories and literatures of the queer in order to understand and complicate relationships between author, identity, and representation in various cultures and time periods. We will examine how ¿queer¿ is designated and experienced globally and how queerness intersects with other racial and ethnic identities. This course introduces students to the discipline and methods of comparative literature. We will study works from a range of genres, periods, and national traditions, with a focus on texts that demonstrate, complicate, or challenge ideas of the queer as a central theme or premise. Reading and understanding texts can also be a transformative experience as it provides an opportunity to foster empathy and understanding about the world and its people. In this class we will practice close-reading and literary analysis as transformative skills. This course fulfills IUB General Education Arts & Humanities, Intensive Writing, and Comparative Literature major requirements. This class will be a mix of lecture and discussion, short writing assignments, and one longer comparative essay.