Trans Literature in the United States

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course focuses on the American history and aesthetics of trans literature. How has American literature changed through the innovations of trans writers? How has trans identity been shaped by literary narrative and form? And how has trans literature responded to or been shaped by American politics and culture, up to and including the executive declaration against the category of "gender" entirely? In this class, we will read together through major works by trans authors to gain a sense of the relationship between transgender life, narrative/poetic form, and the culture of the United States. Our syllabus thinks comparatively about trans literature across time periods, genres, and genders, including taking other forms of difference like sexuality, race, and ability as active analytical questions which modify and are modified by gender.