Writing Queer Fiction
ENGL 374
Spring 2023
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01
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In a historical moment where the LGBTQIA community has achieved a level of legal and social equality previously thought unimaginable, what it means to write queerly has never been more exciting and more difficult to define. What formal choices, modes, tools, and innovations are queer fiction writers inventing and reaching for now in order to tell stories about contemporary queer lives? Have we as a culture exhausted the insights offered in the "coming out" or acceptance narrative, and if so, what other narrative shapes are being created to take its place? How are queer writers who have been historically excluded from the queer writing canon-i.e. queer writers of color, trans, nonbinary and genderqueer writers, disabled queer writers and rural and working class queer writers-entering and subverting it? And finally, we might consider the contributions of writers who don't identify as queer themselves but whose themes, characters and visions of the world put them solidly within this tradition.
In this hybrid seminar and workshop class we will read excerpts from many contemporary writers of queer fiction working in the last twenty years, analyze their craft decisions and the themes that emerge across authors, and write our own criticism and short fiction. We will do writing exercises designed to offer new craft tools and fresh inspiration, a scholarly assignment to closely examine a selection of the assigned course texts, and workshop original fiction from each writer. All students of every identity are welcome. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Excerpts from the following:
We The Animals, Justin Torres
The First Bad Man, Miranda July
Her Body & Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
Blue Boy, Rakesh Satyal
Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emzi
What Belongs To You, Garth Greenwell
Cantoras, Carolina de Robertis
Lot, Bryan Washington
Little Fish, Casey Plett
Nevada, Imogen Binnie
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, Andrea Lawlor
Blue Talk and Love, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Another Brooklyn, Jacquelyn Woodson
Black Wave, Michelle Tea
The Prettiest Star, Carter Sickels
Rainbow Rainbow, Lydia Conklin
Bestiary, K Ming Chang
Stone Fruit, Lee Lai
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will complete three take home writing exercises. These should be 2-3 double spaced pages in length.
Students will complete a scholarly paper 5-7 double spaced pages in length. Choose 2-3 of the authors from weeks 1-7 and a scholarly inquiry that makes an argument comparing and contrasting the craft choices (voice, POV, structure, relationship to time, formatting and/or aesthetics of text, diction and sentence style, etc) these authors are making, why you think these authors are employing these particular craft choices to their particular subject matter, which craft choices you find most effective and why.
Students will write and turn in 10-15 pages of original fiction. This might be a completed short story or an excerpt of something longer. You are encouraged to use your short exercises as jumping off points for this work.
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
The Creative Writing Program will run the Russell House Reading series. You are required to attend two of these events, which counts towards your participation grade.
This course contributes to fulfillment of ENGL Major requirements: CW requirement, CW 300-level course, CW upper-level workshop, elective. |
| Instructor(s): Eisenberg,Emma Copley Times: .M..... 09:20AM-12:10PM; Location: HALL56; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 2 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 3 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 2 |
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