This course will explore representations of gender and race in American cinema and popular culture, ranging from Classical Hollywood, social critical cinema of the 1950s/1960s to contemporary films that feature representations of the body in various contexts. Weekly readings of contemporary gender and race theories will guide us in identifying the various stereotypes and subversive aspects depicted in cinema and popular culture. Topics include various representations of masculinity and the crisis of white masculinity; the black woman’s gaze; objectification and lighting of white women; race/ethnicity and hypersexuality; white privilege; sexual orientation; and transgender performance. This course is reading and writing intensive and examples from films will be discussed and closely analyzed in class. Films discussed include Deliverance; Jackie Brown; Pocahontas; Twilight; Paris is Burning; Moonlight; Get Out; BlacKkKlansman; Creed; The Farewell. Please note that this course requires heavy use of myCourses (mC).

In Fall 2022 this course satisfies the Race Requirement for English department majors. 

ENGL 778 may be taken as an upper-level elective by general English majors.

In Fall 2022 ENGL 778 may be taken for Capstone credit by English department majors if it is not used to satisfy any other requirement areas. Pick up a Capstone Declaration form in the main English office (HS 230F) if interested. 

 Queer and Now: LGBTQ Literature and Film

This course considers the diverse forms of LGBTQ sexuality, self-expression, and desire as bodied forth in 20th and 21st century fiction, poetry, drama, graphic memoir, and cinema.  We'll track the changing ways in which fluid sexualities have been experienced and represented, aided by critical essays offering theoretical frameworks and historical context (one of which, Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick's 1993 "Queer and Now," gives this class its title).

We’ll read such writers as James Baldwin (Giovanni's Room), Frank O'Hara, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Mark Doty, Leslie Feinberg (Stone Butch Blues), Tony Kushner (Angels in America), Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Ivan Coyote, Chinelo Okparanta (Under the Udala Trees), Carmen Maria Machado (In the Dream House), Bryan Washington, and Tade Thompson (Rosewater, an Africanfuturist novel).

In addition to the documentaries The Celluloid Closet and Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, we’ll explore work by such directors as Jennie Livingston (Paris Is Burning), the Wachowskis (Bound), Sean Baker (Tangerine), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman), and Wanuri Kahiu (Rafiki).

English 787/800, English Major Seminar: Queer and Now is a Writing Intensive course that fulfills part of the Capstone requirement (as well as the “Poetics” requirement) for the Literary Studies option within the Literary Arts & Studies / English Studies major. At UNH Manchester, it also fulfills the diversity requirement for the B.A. in English Teaching.  Prerequisite: English 419, or instructor’s permission.  Although the course is titled “English Major Seminar,” students from other majors are very welcome and may find the subject matter of interest.

English 787/800 may be repeated for credit, up to a maximum of 8 credits, provided that content is not significantly duplicated.  

In Fall 2022 ENGL 791 may be taken for Capstone credit by English department majors if it is not used to satisfy any other requirement areas. Pick up a Capstone Declaration form in the main English office (HS 230F) if interested. 

In Fall 2022 ENGL 793 may be taken for Capstone credit by English department majors if it is not used to satisfy any other requirement areas. Pick up a Capstone Declaration form in the main English office (HS 230F) if interested.