Given their slow integration into the social mainstream, queer people have often made do with self-fashioning, a sensibility that identity is a work in progress. Literature and other artistic forms have been integral in sustaining and protecting the stories of queer lives and times. In this course, we will encounter various forms and transformations of queer expression, while focusing on a recent era that saw the dramatic visibility of LGBT folk: the 1990s. But we will not read this period in history in isolation. Instead, we will look backward too, considering early accounts of same-sex longing alongside contemporary representations. The Nineties zeitgeist was self-conscious about the previous “Gay Nineties” (the 1890s) and other queer eras like the Harlem Renaissance. Fulfills the Diversity of Literatures in English requirement.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Not Offered; Spring