Lit/CS 135 and Soc/B 130
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
University of California, San Diego
Winter 2000
Instructors: Steven Epstein (Sociology) and Judith Halberstam (Literature)
Meets in HSS 1330, Tu Th 9:35-10:55 am
Office Hours:
Halberstam – M 4:00-5:30 pm; W 10:00-11:30 am
Epstein – Tu 4:15-5:15 pm; W 1:00-2:00 pm
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary examination of human, and especially gay and lesbian, sexual and erotic desires, orientations, and identities. We will study how desires are constructed, how they vary and remain the same in different places and times, and how they interact with other social and cultural phenomena such as government; family; popular culture; scientific inquiry; and, especially, race, gender, and class.
The course will introduce and juxtapose a range of disciplinary perspectives in LGBT studies (including historical, biological, literary, and sociological approaches) as well as recent work done under the rubric of queer theory.
This class will combine class lectures and discussion with readings and videos. It will attempt to unearth the main theoretical issues underlying debates about such issues as AIDS; gay marriage; gays in the military; transgenderism; the relations between gender and sexual variance; the history of sexuality; the arguments over the possible genetic bases for homosexuality; queers and representation; queer cinema; constructivism and essentialism.
Course Requirements
1) Short 4-5pp paper - 25%
2) Midterm Examination (Feb. 17) - 25%
3) Take-home Final Examination - 50%
Students are responsible for material presented in readings, lectures, and films. In addition, regular class attendance is required and class participation is strongly encouraged.
Films are available for screening at the Film and Video Library. Copies of required readings are on reserve at the undergraduate library.
Late papers will be marked down unless a doctor’s note is presented. University regulations concerning plagiarism will be strictly enforced.
Book List
Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey, eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past (Meridian, 1989).
Peter M. Nardi and Beth E. Schneider, eds., Social Perspectives in Lesbian and Gay Studies (Routledge, 1998).
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues (Firebrand, 1993).
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Crossing Press, 1982).
David Wojnarowicz, Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration (Vintage, 1991).
URPS READER FOR LTCS 135/ SOCB 130:
Reading List
1) Michel Foucault, "The Repressive Hypothesis" from The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction (New York: Vintage, 1980): 17-49.
2) Eve Sedgwick, "Introduction" to Epistemology of the Closet (Berkeley: University of California Press): 1-66.
3) Judith Butler, "Critically Queer" GLQ Volume 1 #1 (1993): 17-32.
4) Lisa Duggan, "The Trials of Alice Mitchell" Signs Vol. 18 #4 (Summer 1993): 791-814.
5) Lilian Faderman, "Lesbian Nation: Creating a Woman-Identified-Women Community in the 1970’s" in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers (New York: Penguin, 1991): 215-245.
6) John D’Emilio, "The Homosexual Menace: The Politics of Sexuality in Cold War America," in Passion and Power: Sexuality in History, ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1989): pp. 226-240.
7) Rochelle Thorpe, "A House Where Queers Go: African-American Lesbian Nightlife in Detroit, 1940-1975" in Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America, ed. Ellen Lewin (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996): 40-61.
8) Steven Epstein, "Gay and Lesbian Movements in the United States: Dilemmas of Identity, Diversity and Political Strategy" in The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, ed. Barry Adam et al. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998): 30-90.
9) Martin Manalansan, "In the Shadows of Stonewall" in GLQ, Vol. 2 #4 (1995): 425-438.
10) Simon LeVay and Dean H. Hamer, "Evidence for a Biological Influence in Male Homosexuality," in Scientific American (May 1994): pp. 44-55.
11) William Byne, "The Biological Evidence Challenged," in Scientific American (May 1994): 44-55.
12) Jennifer Terry, "Anxious Slippages between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: A Brief History of the Scientific Search for Homosexual Bodies," in Deviant Bodies, ed. Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 137-148.
13) Suzanne Kessler, "The Medical Constuction of Gender" from Lessons from the Intersexed (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1998): 12-32.
14) Judith Halberstam, "Oh Bondage Up Yours: Female Masculinity and the Tomboy" in Tomboys and Sissies: Gender Nonconformity and Homosexual Childhood, ed. Matt Rottnek (New York: NYU Press, 1999): 153-179.
15) Ken Corbett, "Homosexual Boyhood: Notes on Girlyboys" in Tomboys and Sissies: Gender Nonconformity and Homosexual Childhood, ed. Matt Rottnek (New York: NYU Press, 1999): 107-139.
16) Sandy Stone, "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" in Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity, eds. Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub (new York: Routledge, 1991): 280-304.
17) Jacob C. Hale, "Consuming the Living, Dis(re)membering the Dead in the Butch/FTM Borderlands" in GLQ 4:2, "The Transgender Issue (1998): 311-348.
18) Bernice Hausman, "Body, Technology and Gender in Transsexual Autobiographies" in Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology and the Idea of Gender (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1995): 141-174.
19) José Esteban Muñoz, "Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter-Publicity: Performing an Ethics of Self" in In Living Color: Race and Television in the United States, ed. Sasha Torres (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1998): 195-218.
20) Sarah Schulman, "Selling AIDS and Other Consequences of the Commodification of Homosexuality" in Stage Struck: Theater, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America (Durham: Duke UP, 1998): 99-144.
21) Michael Warner, "Beyond Gay Marriage" in The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (New York: Free Press,1999): 81-148.
22) Andrew Sullivan, "A Politics of Homosexuality" in Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality (New York: Knopf, 1995):169-187.
Schedule of Classes
Week One: Thinking Sex
January 11-13
Reading: Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex," in Nardi and Schneider; Michel Foucault, from History of Sexuality, vol. 1 (READER).
Week Two: Thinking Queer
January 18-20
Reading: Tomás Almaguer, "Chicano Men," in Nardi and Schneider; Eve Sedgwick, "Introduction" to Epistemology of the Closet (READER); Judith Butler, "Critically Queer" GLQ Volume 1 #1 (READER).
Week Three: Queer History 1
January 25-27
Reading: Lisa Duggan, "The Trials of Alice Mitchell" (READER); George Chauncey, "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion? in Hidden; Esther Newton, "The Mythic Mannish Lesbian" in Hidden; Allan Bérubé, "Marching to a Different Drummer" in Hidden.
Film: Before Stonewall
Week Four: Queer History 2
February 1-3
Reading: Lillian Faderman, "Lesbian Nation: Creating a Woman-Identified Woman Community in the 1970s" (READER); John D’Emilio, "The Homosexual Menace: The Politics of Sexuality in Cold War America," (READER); Rochelle Thorpe, "Blacks Lesbians in Detroit" (READER). Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (begin).
Special Event: Ruth Ellis at 100: The Oldest Living Lesbian, documentary film introduced by the film maker Yvonne Welbon. Thursday evening, time and place TBA.
Week Five: Social Movements
February 8-10
Reading: Steve Epstein, "Gay and Lesbian Movements in the United States" (READER); Arlene Stein, "Sisters and Queers: The Decentering of Lesbian Feminism," in Nardi and Schneider; Joshua Gamson, "Must Identity Movements Self-destruct? A Queer Dilemma," in Nardi & Schneider; Martin Manalansan, "In the Shadows of Stonewall" (READER). Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (finish).
Film: After Stonewall
Week Six: Gender Diversity 1: Tomboys and Sissies, Butches and Fems
February 15-17
Readings: Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues; Judith Halberstam, "Oh Bondage Up Yours: Female Masculinity and the Tomboy" (READER); Madeline Davis and Elizabeth L. Kennedy, "Oral History and the Study of Sexuality," in Hidden; Ken Corbett, "Homosexual Boyhood: Notes on Girlyboys" (READER).
**Midterm February 17
Week Seven: Gender Diversity 2: Transsexuals and Transgenders
February 22-24
Reading: Sandy Stone, "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" (READER); Jacob C. Hale, "Consuming the Living, Dis(re)membering the Dead" (READER); Bernice Hausman, "Body, Technology and Gender in Transsexual Autobiographies" (READER).
Film: The Brandon Teena Story (1998) by Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir.
Week Eight: Queer Science
February 29 – March 2
Reading: Simon LeVay and Dean H. Hamer, "Evidence for a Biological Influence in Male Homosexuality," (READER); William Byne, "The Biological Evidence Challenged," (READER); Suzanne Kessler, from "The Medical Construction of Gender" (READER): Jennifer Terry, "Anxious Slippages" (READER).
Week Nine: AIDS: Crisis and Response
March 7-9
Reading: David Wojnarowicz, Closer to the Knives; Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy," in Nardi & Schneider; Stoller, "Lesbian Involvement in the AIDS Epidemic," in Nardi & Schneider.
Films: Fast Trip, Long Drop by Gregg Bordowitz; Silverlake Life by Tom Joslin.
Week Ten: The Trouble with Normal
March 14-16
Reading: José Esteban Muñoz, "Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter-Publicity: Performing an Ethics of Self" (READER); Barry Adam, "Anatomy of a Panic: State Voyeurism, Gender Politics, and the Cult of Americanism," in Nardi & Schneider; Sarah Schulman, "Selling AIDS and Other Consequences of the Commodification of Homosexuality" (READER); Michael Warner, "Beyond Gay Marriage" (READER); Andrew Sullivan, "Virtually Normal" (READER).
Screening: Ellen, the "coming out episode."