ENGL 183 - Queer Polemics

Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)

(Same as WFQS 183) This Intensive offers students an opportunity to engage the polemic as a rhetorical form of particular importance to queer social movements. We review examples of the polemic across a variety of literary forms, including the manifesto, political pamphlet, satirical essay, and allegory, and across different media: films/videos, songs, “zaps,” posters, fashion, memes, and zines. Foregrounding the place of “queer” within a broader history of social justice movements, we inquire into the appeal and effectiveness of the polemic as a strategy for political change (or disruption or refusal) in relation to specific crises and struggles. As an exercise in experiential learning, we try our hands at composing polemics collaboratively. What is the role of anger and outrage in fomenting collective identities or counterpublics? What is the place of camp in the history of the queer polemic? What new digital forms of the queer polemic have emerged from social media platforms? Class activities include visits to the Lesbian Herstory Archive in Brooklyn, New York and the Schomburg’s “In the Life” Collection in Harlem, NY. Hiram Pérez-Piña.

Both first and second six-week course.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: INT