Dear All,
Here are the online readings for this week. The readings are a little longer in terms of page numbers, but a) that’s why I didn’t give y’all a writing prompt to work on, and 2) most of the reading here is, unlike last week, more conversational, clearer, less “opaque” and so shouldn’t take you as long. Please do them in the order 1-4 below. Though the Dean Spade article is longer than the others, 20pp, it’s conversational and clear and so should be a quick, but I think REALLY IMPORTANT, read for us. The other readings are VERY short: excerpt of a poetry book by edwards (1 pg), a prose-poetry piece by edwards (a few pages), and the intro to Butler’s book (a few pages). Please print all things out as usual EXCEPT THE DEAN SPADE. Thanks to Elizabeth, I have hard copies printed out of the Spade for you, so read it online and write down notes–questions etc for lecture-discussion. I’ll give you the printed-out article (chapbook) on Weds. Still continue to make notes of the parts you have questions about or interest in, however. And if that means you must print it out to do so, OK. But we do have it waiting for you to take home at beginning of class.
We will have class Weds. For those of you who are interested in attending the Queer Positive Porn panel instead of lecture, you can do so and I won’t mark you absent. But only if you REALLY want to go to the panel discussion–otherwise I’ll see you in class as usual.
READINGS! :
1. Judith Butler, from Undoing Gender (sent as pdf in an email)
2. kari edwards, “Subject: Statement” from EOAGH HERE
3. kari edwards, excerpt of Iduna (O Books) HERE
4. Dean Spade, “Trans Law & Poltics On A Neoliberal Landscape” HERE (I have hard copies for you of this article, so read it now but no need to print this one out – already done for you!)
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Highly Recommended (connected to themes and prompts for this week and week 5-6):
*For further reading (recommended, not required), kari edwards on narrative, “Narrative/Idenity,” in the journal Narrativity - HERE
(The recommended, non-required reading by edwards here is an excellent essay, and overall an excellent issue of the journal – for anyone wanting to continue thinking and writing about Identity/Agency/Self in relation to poetry, and in writing poetry that speaks to these questions/concerns, intertextually. For example, Rob Halpern also has a very good essay on narrative here.)
*For further reading (recommended, not required), a good preparation for next week’s reading but also related to this week: transgressive bodies in relation to artworks that refuse categorical or simplistic identities, i.e., artworks that transgress in both form and content: Artist, Activist, and poet David Wjnarowicz short film “A Fire In My Belly” HERE and a Huffington Post article about the Smithsonian’s
“homophobic censoring” of this activist-artist and comparing the censoring to government attempts to shut down WikiLeaks HERE (good short blog post along with the film – press the play button for the video. From the very cool, very useful collective blog Montevidayo)