Studying at York
Modernism's Queer Spaces - ENG00088H
Module summary
From the vantage point of the twenty-first century, it is tempting to look back upon the modernist period as a thoroughly gay old time. As Ezra Pound was calling upon his contemporaries to ‘Make it New’ – a slogan that, in Michael North’s words, has become ‘so ubiquitous as to have lost its trademark status, like Kleenex or the Xerox copy’ – writers on both sides of the Atlantic were finding exciting ways of subverting textual and sexual norms. But for all the thrills of the sapphic salons, the possibilities of new gender identities announced by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928), and narrative structures that refused to be ‘straight’, writers found themselves in a political climate that was as restrictive as it was progressive. With the First World War having raised suspicion of all that was ‘other’, novels as diverse as D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915) and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928) were banned under the outdated Obscene Publications Act of 1857. In an otherwise forward-thinking time of rapid scientific and technological advancement, writers and queer personalities were forced to seek new and often covert or coded means of representation. To quote Gertrude Stein, ‘machine making does not turn out queer things like us, they can never make a world to let us be free’.
This module takes readers on a tour of modernism’s most marginalised and most compelling queer spaces. From the dark alleyways of late-Victorian London (Jekyll and Hyde), we’ll go on to explore the salons of 1920s Paris (The Well of Loneliness, Nightwood), seventeenth-century Constantinople (Orlando), and the bedroom of an Italian bartender where a betrothed American expatriate undergoes a ‘sea-change’ (Giovanni’s Room). There are unlikely spaces here, too: a transatlantic steamer (Q.E.D.), the tearoom of the British Museum (Des Imagistes), and a postwar Berkshire farm (The Fox). We’ll read texts as queer spaces, taking in various forms and genres (the poem, the novella, the roman à clef) alongside visual materials and key critical works. Closely examining intersecting identities of race, nationality, and class, and probing the relationship between political radicalism and aesthetic experiment, we’ll ask important questions about censorship evasion and canon formation. What does it mean to ‘tell it straight’? Why are some writers ‘in’ and others ‘out’? Where would modernism be without its queer texts?
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
This module aims to introduce you to a diverse range of canonical and peripheral LGBTQIA+ modernist writers and their allies and antagonists. The module will highlight key moments and themes in queer studies and LGBTQIA+ cultural and political history, demonstrating an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to literary scholarship. You will be encouraged to consider texts in spatial terms, as sites of resistance or (un)gendered plots, and to think about queer modes of writing and reading. The module will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to conduct your own research on queer texts and contexts.
Module learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with a diverse range of queer modernist texts.
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with literary texts in their historical, political, and legal contexts.
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Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with literary modernism and queer studies.
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Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
You will be given the opportunity to hand in a 1000 word formative essay in the term in which the module is taught (usually in the week 7 seminar). Material from this essay may be re-visited in your summative essay and it is therefore an early chance to work through material that might be used in assessed work.
This essay will be submitted in hard copy and your tutor will annotate it and return it two weeks later (usually in your week 9 seminar). Summary feedback will be uploaded to your eVision account.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
- You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your tutor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours
- For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see the department's Guide to Assessment
Indicative reading
You may purchase any good scholarly edition (Oxford World’s Classics, Penguin Classics, Norton Critical Editions, etc.) of the primary texts. Please see the recommendations below:
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Penguin Classics, 2003).
- Gertrude Stein, Three Lives and Q.E.D. (Norton Critical Editions, 2006).
- D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow (Oxford World’s Classics, 1998) and The Fox / The Captain’s Doll / The Ladybird (Penguin Classics, 2006).
- Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (Virago Modern Classics, 2011).
- Virginia Woolf, Orlando (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).
- Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (Faber and Faber, 2007).
- James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room (Penguin Modern Classics, 2001).