English 3980W Now Open for Registration!

English 3980W: Transnational Film Studies and LGBTQ Cultures: The interdisciplinary field that has come to be called “queer” studies over the past two decades has always concerned itself with questions of representation: how are, for instance, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals or transgender people,represented in film, in novels, in other forms of media?  As the field has developed, these questions of representation have increasingly been linked to other, complex questions, involving political economy, globalization, and transnationalism: in what ways have lgbt people been incorporated into contemporary nation-states?  What identities and desires threaten “the nation” as it is currently (and variously) materialized in our world?  How have identities such as “gay” and “lesbian” circulated globally?  How have those recognizable minority identities come into contact and conflict with other ways of identifying around non-normative desires?  Have those identities at times functioned imperialistically, especially as “gay tourism” has become a recognizable part of global capitalism?  Conversely, what kinds of unexpected alliances have been shaped across borders as queer movements have globalized?  How have these movements theorized race, gender, class, and ability; what connections have been made with other movements organized, however contentiously, around identity?

This film studies course will consider how questions of queer representation intersect with questions of queer globalization(s).  From November 7-17, we will travel to Prague, Czech Republic to attend Mezipatra: Queer Film Festival along with students from Charles University in Prague in Professor Katerina Kolárová’s class.