55-5205 CRW: Gender and Difference

This course examines the ways in which gay, lesbian, and straight writers contend with issues of culture, gender, and difference. The course focuses upon such questions as the following: How do straight male and female writers deal with the serious issues and challenges of writing from the point of view of gay and lesbian characters How do gay and lesbian writers deal with the same issues in writing about straight characters The course also examines the particular challenges of writing gender opposites (whatever the sexual orientation of those characters might be). Through the students’ reading of assigned stories and novels, through their written responses as writers to their reading, through creative fiction and nonfiction writing assignments, and through individual and small-group research activities, the course will approach broad and specific issues of gender and difference from early writing to the present day.

3 Credits
Requisites COREQUISITES: 55-5101 Fiction Writing I or 55-6101 Fiction Writing I or 55-5102 Fiction Writing II or 55-6102 Fiction Writing II or 55-5104 Prose Forms or 55-5105 Advanced Prose Forms or 55-5106 Fiction Writing: Advanced or 55-6110 Thesis Development or 55-4101 Fiction Writing I or 55-1101 Fiction Writing I