Writing the Body
THEA 236Z
Winter 2025
| Section:
01
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| This course may be repeated for credit. |
| Crosslisting:
FGSS 233Z, ENGL 255Z, DANC 236Z |
How does the body write? Do we trace our words with fingers and toes, with a pen and paper, with flour or glitter or dust or the soles of our feet? Can the written word remind us that we are more than our eyes or our heads? Writing the body is an attempt to link the worlds of the written and the somatic through the act of writing. This class is both a generative creative writing course and a theoretical exploration of the ways in which the body has been rendered in literature, poetry, and philosophy. Putting queer studies, disability studies, Black studies, and Indigenous studies into conversation with prose, plays, and poetry, students will explore different strategies of embodied writing. Looking to the work of Maggie Nelson, Jean-Luc Nancy, Eileen Myles, Christina Sharpe, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Melissa Febos, Hortense Spillers, Eve Tuck, Billy Ray Belcourt, Torrey Peters, Wendy Ortiz, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jordy Rosenberg, Gabrielle Civil, Ursula Le Guin, adrienne maree brown, and Frank O'Hara students will produce a written work that moves promiscuously between theory and creative nonfiction. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA THEA |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (THEA) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Lidia Yuknavitch, The Chronology of Water
Andrea Lawlor, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Torrey Peters, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones + Marquis Bey, Black Trans Feminism
Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Captioning the Archives
Billy Ray Belcourt, This Wound is a World
Melissa Febos, BODYWORK
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three writing assignments accompanied by in-class workshops |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course is scheduled to be held online. All Winter Session students should expect some readings and assignments to be due during winter break, prior to the beginning of Winter Session class meetings. Syllabi for Winter Session courses will be posted to https://www.wesleyan.edu/wintersession/courses.html as soon as they are available. |
| Instructor(s): Brewer Ball,Katie Times: .MTWRF. 12:00PM-04:00PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 10 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 4 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 1 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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