WMST 218 - Literature, Gender, and Sexuality

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course considers matters of gender and sexuality in literary texts, criticism, and theory. The focus varies from year to year, and may include study of a historical period, literary movement, or genre; constructions of masculinity and femininity; sexual identities; or representations of gender in relation to race and class.

Topic for 2014/15b: Gender, Sexuality, Disability. (Same as ENGL 218 ) This course is an introduction to disability studies, with a focus on the difference(s) that gender can make, both in social constructions of disability and in the lives of men and women with disabilities. Topics include: the languages of disability; cultural ideals of beauty and the acceptable/desirable body; disability and representation; the impact of disability on sexuality and gender identity; and intersections of disability studies with feminist and queer theory. A particular focus of the course will be the self-representation of disabled subjects–how they use writing, art, and performance to overcome stigma and shame, to challenge stereotypes, to re-imagine identities, and to engage in disability activism. Ms. Dunn.

Two 75-minute periods.