Gender, Politics Performance

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course focuses on theoretical, filmic, and dramatic works that highlight the political potential of gender and performance. “A woman’s place is in the home” and its counter, “A Woman’s Place is in the House,” speak to a contentious history in the United States of gendered spaces, roles, and careers. By locating women in particular space, these statements seek to define the role of women in the labor market, their relation to public space, the presence or absence of political power. Rather than abide the limiting binary of a sexist remark of a patriarchal past and a demand for inclusion in an egalitarian future, this course aims to expose students to the aperture betwixt the private space of the home and public nature of the House of Representatives; namely, the stage, screen, and street. Students will explore strategies and methods for thinking about gender’s double existence as a fleeting ephemeral performance before a live audience and as a documented text available for reading and interpreting. The course will consider histories of political organizing, contemporary political theater, and the rich counterpublics of everyday living as a backdrop for students to critically and imaginatively engage with the rapidly changing cultural landscape of 21st century America. Throughout, students will attend to the ways race, sexuality, and ability undergird our understanding of gender, politics, and performance.