Studies in Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment (389-0-20)

Topic

Two Thousand Years of Trans Fictions

Instructors

Barbara Newman
847/491-5679
University Hall 215

Meeting Info

University Hall 101: Mon, Wed, Fri 1:00PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Only recently has it become possible to "change sex" through gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy. But in another sense, that possibility has long intrigued the human imagination. In this course we will survey two thousand years of trans fictions—in verse, prose, and drama; in Latin, French, and English; in tragic, comic, and epic form. Our protagonists will range from the famous mythic hero/ine Tiresias through medieval saints, cross-dressing lesbians, a female knight, an operatic castrato, a 300-year-old poet, and a Greek-American child of incest. Co-listed with GSS.

Teaching Method

Discussion.

Evaluation Method

Participation, three 5-7 page papers; one may be creative.

Class Materials (Required)

Ovid, Metamorphoses (selections);
Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (selections);
Heldris of Cornwall, The Romance of Silence;
Christine de Pizan, The Book of the Mutability of Fortune (selections);
John Lyly, Galathea;
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night and Sonnet 20;
Honore de Balzac, Sarrasine;
Virginia Woolf, Orlando;
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex;
Ali Smith, Girl Meets Boy.

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for English and Creative Writing students.