Junior Research Seminar: Fail Better: Queer Theory and the Antisocial Thesis

REQUIRED TEXTS

Leo Bersani, Is the Rectum a Grave?
Samuel Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume One
Judith (Jack) Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure

DESCRIPTION

This research seminar explores the generative potentials of failure (and its attendant
notions of error, instability, incompleteness, etc.) for artists and art critics by
foregrounding the ascendancy of queer theory in critical discourse. Seminar readings will
function as an introduction to some of the foundational claims of queer theory, while
seminar discussions will be reserved for thinking through these claims in tandem with
various art practices (including our own).

Please note: this is not a class on gay and lesbian studies, a field which queer theory
emerged, in part, to actively problematize for its reliance on stable identities (i.e., gays
and lesbians) and the authority of experience. Put differently, queer theory is less
invested in finding gays and lesbians in the historical archives of the arts, civic records,
and so on, than in understanding the way identity categories are created and whose
interests they serve. Put differently still: queer theory is less about sexual identity than it
is about sex and sexuality, to the degree such a distinction can be maintained. That is, in
one final reformulation: it will be our task to understand the degree to which identity and
behavior fail to secure each other, and we will take serious the charge of failing better,
with all its implications for creative and critical processes.

Artists considered include: Ron Athey, Samuel Beckett, Samuel Delany, Bruce LaBruce,
Goat Island, and others.

This seminar requires around 70 pages of reading per week.

EVALUATION

Research Essay 40%

10-15 pages, MLA formatted

Reading Responses 30%

You are asked to complete two (2) 3-5 page, MLA formatted responses papers
(due the fifth and tenth weeks, respectively). These papers are open-topic, but
they should articulate your relationship to one or more of the texts weve covered.
See Remarks on Response Papers.

Participation 30%

Come to the seminar prepared to talk about the material youve read.

SCHEDULE

Week 1
Introduction
Writing Diagnostic

Week 2: The Origins of (Social Constructionism in) Queer Theory (75 pages)
Foucault, 1-49 and 133-159

Week 3: Sex and Knowledge (75 pages)
*Arnold Davidson, Sex and the Emergence of Sexuality
*Eve Sedgwick, The Epistemology of the Closet
*Gayle Rubin, Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality

Week 4: The Anti-Social Thesis (75 pages)
Bersani, 1-33
*Robert Casserio, The Antisocial Thesis in Queer Theory
*Lee Edelman, The Future is Kid Stuff: Queer Theory, Disidentification, and the Death
Drive

Week 5: The Future of Shame (70 pages)
*Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, Sex in Public
*Tim Dean, An Impossible Embrace: Queerness, Futurity, and the Death Drive
*David Halperin and Valerie Traub, Beyond Gay Pride
Due: Response Paper 1

Week 6: Performance By Any Other Name (60 pages)
*Sara Ahmed, The Nonperformativity of Antiracism
*Judith Butler, Imitation and Gender Insubordination
*Jose Muoz, Introduction: Perfoming Disidentifications

Week 7: Living the Queer City (110 pages)
Delany, 1-109

Week 8: The Queer Art of Failure (70 pages)
Halberstam, 1-26 and 87-123

Week 9: Can Sex Make Us Happy? (60 pages)
Bersani, 102-138
Halberstam, 123-146

Week 10: How To Do Things With (The Wrong) Words (45 pages)
*Sara Jane Bailes, Some Slow Going Considering Beckett and Goat Island
*Calvin Thomas, Cultural Droppings: Bersanis Beckett
Due: Response Paper 2

Week 11: Dismantling the Queer City (100 pages)
Delany, 110-209

Week 12: Uncomfortable Positions (70 pages)
*Eugenie Brinkema, Rape and the Rectum: Bersani, Deleuze, No
*Eugenie Brinkema, To Cut, To Split, To Touch, To Eat, As of a Body or a Text
*Tim Dean, Breeding Culture: Barebacking, Bugchasing, Giftgiving
*Kate Thomas, Post Sex: On Being Too Slow, Too Stupid, Too Soon

Week 13: Beyond Redemption (55 pages)
Bersani, 171-201
*Lynne Huffer, Are the Lips a Grave?

Week 14: Art or Porn? (5 pages)
Bersani, 31-36
SCREEN: Bruce LaBruce, The Raspberry Reich

Week 15: Endings
Final comments
Due: Research Paper

*Available in online course materials.