Gender and Sexuality: Textual and Political 3000-PIS-S1-KK
The seminar "Gender and Sexuality: Textual and Political" will be devoted to the study of broadly understood texts in their cultural, social, and political contexts. We will ask questions about gender and sexuality and their relationship to text: What is the significance of the author, form, literary-historical and cultural context, and the material conditions of text production? At what levels do we decipher gender and sexuality codes and norms from text? How do texts shape and support gender and sexuality norms, and how do they allow for their subversion?
We will begin mapping the field of gendered textual research with a genealogy of feminist literary criticism, linked to second-wave feminism and the critique of the male-centric literary canon. We will also examine early ideas about "feminine aesthetics" in literature and the concept of gynocriticism. The next step will be exploring the concept of so-called "French theory," which conquered academic American feminism in the 1980s, but also, along with authors such as Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and Helene Cixous, was crucial to Polish feminist criticism in the 1990s. We will ask how poststructuralism influenced the understanding of feminist literary criticism and how the questions posed to texts have changed. Through Adrienne Rich's "lesbian continuum" and works on male "homosexual desire" (German Ritz), we will move on to interpretations of literary texts by key figures in queer theory: Judith Butler and (inspired by) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. We will also explore how queer and trans theory have influenced the literary canon. Finally, we will consider working class literature and the role of postcolonial, decolonial, and postdependency approaches in thinking about literature in the context of gender and sexuality. However, text is not limited to belles lettres: we will therefore address life writing, popular literature, and feminist discourse analysis which takes journalistic, scholarly, and expert texts as its object of study, aw well as translation into Polish. The course will feature guest lecturers examining texts from a variety of current perspectives.
This overview of analytical approaches and methods will serve as a methodological foundation and inspiration for formulating your own research project, which will be developed through workshops throughout the semester. The culmination will be the presentation of the projects at a student session common to all master's seminars in the field of study.
Workload: 6 ECTS (180 h), including:
– participation in classes 30 h (1 ECTS);
– analytical work 30 h (1 ECTS);
– preparation of a research project, conceptual work on the topic 60 h (2 ECTS);
– presentation/conference participation 60 h (2 ECTS).
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in theses, written term papers, and presentations is specified in §§ 3 and 4 of Resolution No. 98 of the University Council for Education of December 8, 2023, on guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence tools in the educational process. The principles for the possible use of AI tools will be discussed during the course
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
The key expected learning outcome of the course:
- Planning, researching and writing an MA thesis
Knowledge:
- critical terms from feminist and queer literary criticism for advanced analysis (literary) texts
Skilla:
-the ability to analyze in depth gender and sexuality norms across various aspects of textuality and the production of texts
-the ability to find and evaluate primary and secondary sources
- ability to organize complex research results in a coherent way
- the ability to construct an effective argument
Social competences
-heightened awareness of group work and giving feedback
- appreciation of gender/sexuality diversity
Assessment criteria
- Introduction/presentation of the thesis of one of the critical texts in class (10%)
- Abstract of the master's thesis (20%)
- Master's thesis prospectus with preliminary bibliography (40%)
- Presentation of the master's thesis concept during a student session (30%)
Practical placement
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Bibliography
Butler, Judith, Uwikłani w płeć, przeł. Karolina Krasuska. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2008, fragmenty.
Cixous, Hélène. „Śmiech Meduzy”, przeł. Anna Nasiłowska, Teksty Drugie, nr 4/5/6 (1993), 147-166.
Graff, Agnieszka, Rykoszetem. Rzecz o płci, seksualności i narodzie. Warszawa: W.A.B., 2005, fragmenty.
Janion, Maria, Kobiety i duch inności. Warszawa: Sic!, 1993, fragmenty.
Janion, Ludmiła. " Debaty o „ciotach” i „ciotkach”: analizy prasy gejowskiej między studiami kulturowymi a socjolingwistyką." Etyka (2023).
Kłosińska, Krystyna. Feministyczna krytyka literacka. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2010.
Krasuska, Karolina, Płeć i naród: Trans/lokacje. Mari Komornicka/Piotr Odmieniec Włast, Else Lasker-Schuler, Mina Loy, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Badań Literackich PAN: Warszawa 2012, fragmenty.
Rich, Adrienne. Eseje zebrane, przeł. Kaja Gucio. Kraków: Karakter, 2024.
Ritz, German, Nić w labiryncie pożądania. Gender i płeć w literaturze polskiej od romantyzmu do postmodernizmu, przeł. Bronisław Drąg, Andrzej Kopacki, Małgorzata Łukasiewicz. Warszawa; Wiedza powszechna: 2002.
Dezorientacje. Antologia polskiej literatury queer, red. Błażej Warkocki, Alessandro Amenta, Tomasz Kaliściak. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2022.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. „Czytanie paranoiczne, czytanie reparacyjne, albo masz paranoję i pewnie myślisz, że ten tekst jest o tobie”, przeł. Magda Szcześniak, nr 5 (2014), https://www.pismowidok.org/pl/archiwum/2014/5-queer-obrazy/czytanie-paranoiczne-czytanie-reparacyjne.
Showalter, Elaine. „Krytyka feministyczna na bezdrożach”, tłum. Izabela Kalinowska-Blackwood, Teksty Drugie, 1993 / 4-5-6.
Sporne postaci polskiej krytyki feministycznej po 1989 roku. Red. Monika Świerkosz. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Katedra, 2016, fragmenty.
Susan Stryker, „Co powiedziałabym Wiktorowi Frankensteinowi nad wioską Chamounix. Performowanie transpłciowego gniewu”, przeł. Julia Zając, 2023, https://tranzycja.pl/publikacje/susan-stryker-co-powiedzialabym-wiktorowi-frankensteinowi/.
Antonina Tosiek, „Strategie przeciw poniżeniu. Pamiętniki mieszkanek wsi a wstyd klasowy, Teksty drugie”, nr 2 (2024), 243–264.
Warkocki, Błażej. Różowy język. Literatura i polityka kultury na początku wieku. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2013, fragmenty.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: