Junior Colloquium: The All-American Family
AMST 202
Fall 2007
| Section:
01
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This interdisciplinary colloquium will explore the urgency of Queer Studies to American Studies by focusing on a dominant form of American cultural power: the family. American culture is obsessed with the sanctity of the family and of life. At the same time, this ¿focus on the family¿ produces dark, sexually dangerous, and sometimes inhuman others as what must be excluded from the family if it is to remain American. Queer Studies exposes these contradictory American cultural trends. The methodologies of Queer Studies will introduce us to how to read for American culture¿s dependence on the queers it excludes. We will explore how recent debates, popular representations, and queer groups have used the notion of ¿non-traditional families¿ either to attack or to ¿adopt¿ the family norm. By using questions central to Queer Studies (What constitutes a family? Who is included within or excluded from the family? Who decides the terms of membership? Who controls and defines reproduction? Whose bodies get (ab)used in the process?), we will help each other think about how Queer Studies is central to the study of American cultural politics, law, literature, and popular culture. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Interpretation, Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Susan Willis, A PRIMER FOR DAILY LIFE; Toni Morrison, PLAYING IN THE DARK; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, HERLAND; Judith Butler, ANTIGONE'S CLAIM: KINSHIP BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH; Lee Edelman, NO FUTURE: QUEER THEORY AND THE DEATH DRIVE; Lauren Berlant, THE QUEEN OF AMERICA GOES TO WASHINGTON CITY: ESSAYS ON SEX AND CITIZENSHIP; Michael Warner, THE TROUBLE WITH NORMAL; Kath Weston, FAMILIES WE CHOOSE, LESBIANS, GAYS, KINSHIP; Supreme Court of the U.S., LAWRENCE, ET AL V. TEXAS; Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, GOODRIDGE V. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH; Alexander Payne, CITIZEN RUTH (film); John Waters, SERIAL MOM (film); Kimberly Pierce, BOYS DON'T CRY (film).
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Examinations and Assignments:
Four three page essays and one twelve page essay. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Attendance and participation are essential and expected. Film viewings are mandatory. Once the seminar is underway, students will be responsible for teaming up in pairs each week to select key passages from that week's text(s) and help lead class discusssion. |
| Instructor(s): Hasratian,Avak Times: ..T.... 07:00PM-09:50PM; Location: CAMS 3; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 10 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: -2 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: X | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 6 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 4 |
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