Poetics & Politics of Queer Temporality
General
Course Long Title
Poetics & Politics of Queer Temporality
Subject Code
CCST
Course Number
293
Department(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
Queerness of the Ancients: The Poetics and Politics of Queer Temporality
This course introduces, examines and interrogates queer artistic and literary production of two underexamined areas in relation to critical studies and queer studies: ancient literature and the literatures of non-Western civilizations, with a special focus on the depictions of intense eros, the reception and localizations of foreign ideas, the establishment of how an ideal can be made through rhetoric, negotiations between multiple identities, conflicting philosophical and empirical ideas, and contemporary artistic adaptations of old tales. What kind of desires and bodies does "queerness" describe? How did the queerness of the ancients differ from queerness now? To what extent is queer theory relevant to ancient civilizations? Do encounters with old texts require or inspire a retheorizing of queer theory?
Methods and Approaches
The major focus of this course is on complex and fruitful materials from ancient Greek and ancient Chinese civilization, but these will be supplemented by premodern queer experience from Japan, Mexico, Persia, India, Thailand, and England and by contemporary films of the avant-garde from China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand. Students will also have opportunities to speak with artists who are practicing issues related to queer experience. Similarly, we will have writing exercises and creative workshops to record our own present day queer production, and to think together about how to incorporate the ideas we produce in our readings of queer experience in ancient texts with our own art. Ultimately, our studies of theory, ancient texts, and contemporary artworks are meant to inspire students in their own artistic practices.
This course will be a reading intensive seminar since a proper interpretation of the past takes more patience and time than readings in more familiar territory. This course aims to cultivate close reading skills, practice both creative and critical writing, and to inspire your artistic making/ideas from thinking about ancient cultures.
This course introduces, examines and interrogates queer artistic and literary production of two underexamined areas in relation to critical studies and queer studies: ancient literature and the literatures of non-Western civilizations, with a special focus on the depictions of intense eros, the reception and localizations of foreign ideas, the establishment of how an ideal can be made through rhetoric, negotiations between multiple identities, conflicting philosophical and empirical ideas, and contemporary artistic adaptations of old tales. What kind of desires and bodies does "queerness" describe? How did the queerness of the ancients differ from queerness now? To what extent is queer theory relevant to ancient civilizations? Do encounters with old texts require or inspire a retheorizing of queer theory?
Methods and Approaches
The major focus of this course is on complex and fruitful materials from ancient Greek and ancient Chinese civilization, but these will be supplemented by premodern queer experience from Japan, Mexico, Persia, India, Thailand, and England and by contemporary films of the avant-garde from China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand. Students will also have opportunities to speak with artists who are practicing issues related to queer experience. Similarly, we will have writing exercises and creative workshops to record our own present day queer production, and to think together about how to incorporate the ideas we produce in our readings of queer experience in ancient texts with our own art. Ultimately, our studies of theory, ancient texts, and contemporary artworks are meant to inspire students in their own artistic practices.
This course will be a reading intensive seminar since a proper interpretation of the past takes more patience and time than readings in more familiar territory. This course aims to cultivate close reading skills, practice both creative and critical writing, and to inspire your artistic making/ideas from thinking about ancient cultures.