Courses in English

This page was created at 5:39 PM on Fri, Mar 22, 2002.

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

The political and social breakthroughs achieved by the gay liberation movement in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s were made possible the emergence of an openly gay male literary and visual culture. By the mid-1980s, that culture was remarkably accomplished, sophisticated, and diverse, at once self-critical and self-assured, displaying a sexual honesty and explicitness, and enjoying an increasingly international scope.

This course will survey some of the novels, stories, essays, poems, cartoons, and films produced by gay men (and others) during the intense cultural ferment of the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a few glances at work composed both slightly earlier and slightly later. Avoiding the coming-out story and the romance plot in favor of other, more innovative forms, the course will offer students a chance to recover a sense of the possibilities of gay male cultural expression in the days before the Abercrombie catalogue.

Included in the course will be works by Pedro Almodóvar, Gregg Araki, Neil Bartlett, Allan Bérubé, Arthur Bressan, Dennis Cooper, Howard Cruse, Melvin Dixon, John Greyson, Allan Gurganus, Essex Hemphill, Alan Hollinghurst, Derek Jarman, David Leavitt, Adam Mars-Jones, Mark Merlis, James Merrill, Dale Peck, James Purdy, Annie Proulx, Christos Tsiolkas, Michael Warner, and Wong Kar-wai.

Students will be required to attend a weekly evening session for film screenings.