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GSS 202 Fall 2021

Reading Responses

  • See course calendar for due dates
  • Turn in via Blackboard: Reading Responses portal

Your reading responses will be a place for you to work out your thoughts and confusions about the course material. They are also a way to demonstrate that you are keeping up with the course reading. They will vary in length, but they will usually be quite brief (1 page or less). You will write each one in response to a prompt that I will provide, and this page will be updated throughout the semester with the prompts for each reading response. I will aim to post the prompt for each week a reading response is due by Sunday evening of that week.

Table of contents
  1. Reading Responses
    1. Response 1
    2. Response 2
    3. Response 3
    4. Response 4
    5. Response 5
    6. Response 6
    7. Response 7
    8. Response 8
    9. Response 9

Response 1

  1. Using at least one of the following texts we have read so far – Somerville (“Queer”), Hall and Jagose, O’Brien, Marcus, or Stryker (so NOT the Blank reading; you will have the opportunity to discuss Blank in response 2 if you choose) – define the term “queer theory” or “queer studies.” You should describe how this text (or texts, if discussing more than one) discusses the term, but please put this definition into your own words as much as possible.
  2. Using at least one additional text from the above list, describe the relationship between feminism/feminist theory and queer theory or transgender studies and queer theory. You should describe how the reading you chose discusses this relationship, but please put this explanation into your own words as much as possible. In answering this question, if it’s helpful to you, you might also think about the second slide from our Tuesday, 08.24.21 class slides (the one where I listed the names of a bunch of women’s studies/feminist/gender and sexuality studies programs). What do the names of these programs tell you about this relationship?

Response 2

In this response, you will select the Blank, Somerville (“Scientific Racism and the Emergence of the Homosexual Body”), or the Cohen reading to focus on. In your response, you should do the following:

  1. Indicate the author and title of your chosen piece.
  2. Provide a 1-2 paragraph summary of the argument and/or main point(s) of your chosen piece, in your own words. You should try to keep direct quotations of this piece to a minimum, though you may include a few as needed.
  3. Include brief discussions of 2 keywords and/or key concepts from your chosen piece. In discussing your keywords, you should include 1 quote for each keyword in which that keyword is mentioned, discussed, and/or explained. You should then explain, in your own words, what this keyword means for this piece and/or why it’s important to understanding the author’s argument.

Response 3

You should respond to both of the below questions for this response:

  1. What does Muñoz’s concept of “disidentification” mean? You should describe how Muñoz discusses the term, but please put this definition into your own words as much as possible. (~1 paragraph)
  2. Select 1 scene or segment from Marlon Rigg’s Tongues Untied that you see as a good example, demonstration, and/or complication of disidentification and explain how or why it is a good example, demonstration, and/or complication of this concept. Please provide the timestamps of your chosen scene or segment in your response. (~1-2 paragraphs)

Response 4

For this response, you should respond to EITHER question 1.a OR question 1.b (you only need to answer one of them). Then, you should respond to question 2.

1.a. Please rewatch the following 3 short scenes from The Watermelon Woman before writing your response:

  • The Lee Edwards scene (~22:34-25ish)
  • The scene where Cheryl shows the camera pictures of Black entertainers and film stars (~30:18-31:00)
  • The closing credits scene (~1:14:44-end of the film).

The scenes above are just a few of the scenes featuring the display of “archival” materials that Cheryl (the character) has found in her research about The Watermelon Woman. In these scenes, Dunye (the director) mixes actual historical photographs and footage with fictional “historical” photographs and footage. This kind of mixing is also important to the genre of the film, as it incorporates elements of the “pseudo-documentary” style (i.e., a narrative feature film that adopts the style of a documentary; this style is related to, but distinct from, the more popular “mockumentary” style, e.g., the TV show The Office). As Dunye has said about the film, “The Watermelon Woman came from the real lack of any information about the lesbian and film history of African American women. Since it wasn’t happening, I invented it.” What is the importance and/or effect of the film’s “invention” of history? Another way of asking this question is this: Why does this film adopt elements of the pseudo-documentary style? Why is this a (fictional) film about someone making a (documentary) film about trying to find information about a (fictional) historical figure? (~1-2 paragraphs)

1.b. Why is Cheryl (the character) so interested in The Watermelon Woman? Is her fascination with this figure an example of identification, disidentification, and/or both? Make sure to refer to at least one specific moment or scene from the film that provides evidence of your point/explanation (make sure to provide a timestamp). (~1-2 paragraphs)

2.. The following questions pertain to Confessions of the Fox. Please answer all of them (you can be very brief): Who is the Editor? Who is Jack? Who is Bess? And who or what is P——-?

Response 5

This week in class we discussed the ways that secrecy and confession, disclosure and the refusal to disclose, function in Confessions of the Fox. The idea of “confession” is important to queer theory, for lots of reasons. Michel Foucault – who was, among many other things, a historian of sexuality – suggests that religious “confession” – the idea that the truth would set you free – found its way into psychological science in the 19th century. Therapy as a talking cure is built on this notion that speaking our truths will free us. Foucault was skeptical about this, because he thought that speaking the truth also meant (1) Assuming that there was a truth, and that truth was knowable, and (2) Making yourself subject to the power and, perhaps, discipline of the medical community. This last point was especially salient when Foucault was writing in the 1970s and early 80s, as homosexuality was not completely removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1987; it is also salient today when, for example, trans people must be diagnosed by a medical provider with gender dysphoria (a new addition to the DSM in 2013) in order to access gender affirmation procedures.

For your response this week, you will reflect more on the role of confession and disclosure in the novel (you should respond to both 1 and 2 below).

  1. First, select 1 passage or scene from the novel in which someone confesses or discloses something and 1 passage or scene from the novel in which someone (or the novel itself) refuses to confess or disclose something. Write the page number(s) of each of these passages or scenes, as well as the lines with which they begin and end, at the top of your paper.
  2. Write ~2 paragraphs in which you respond to the following questions: What differentiates the passages or scenes you have selected? What makes some confessions or disclosures “good” and others “bad” in the novel? In your response, you might think about the following questions: Under what circumstances is secrecy freeing, and under what conditions is it harmful? And under what circumstances is confession freeing, and under what conditions is it harmful? You should quote directly from the passages or scenes you have selected in your response, including the page numbers, to provide evidence for your interpretations or points.

Response 6

For this response, you should respond to EITHER question 1 OR question 2 (you only need to answer one of them). Make sure to indicate in your response which question you are responding to.

  1. Consider Audre Lorde’s concept of the erotic in relation to Giovanni’s Room. Based on your reading of Lorde’s essay, what do you imagine she might say to David about the erotic? You should ground your ~2-paragraph response in at least 1 passage from Giovanni’s Room and at least 1 passage from Lorde’s essay. Make sure to cite page numbers.

  2. This is a free response option: you can write about anything related to Giovanni’s Room that you would like to discuss. This is an opportunity to reflect in more depth on something we discuss in class or on something you have noticed about or observed in the novel. No matter what you discuss, your response should be about 2 paragraphs long, and it should be specific. You should ground your discussion in at least 1 passage from the text. In fact, a good way to decide what to write about for this response is to think about a specific passage or moment from the novel that confuses you, that you can’t explain, or that you don’t understand. While, again, your response should be specific, you don’t need to arrive at any definite conclusions.

Response 7

For this response, you should respond to EITHER question 1 OR question 2 (you only need to answer one of them). Make sure to indicate in your response which question you are responding to.

  1. As we have discussed in this class, this unit of the course is named after the second-wave feminist motto, “the personal is political.” And this week, we read interviews and personal essays/works of autotheory (a term we will discuss in Thursday’s class), both genres that are interested in the connections between people’s personal lives and larger social or political ideas. Focusing on at least 1 text we read this week, write ~2 paragraphs about how that text demonstrates or relates to the motto “the personal is political.” As always, you should select a specific passage(s) from that text to discuss in your response (and make sure to indicate somewhere in your response which text(s) you are writing about).

  2. This is a free response option: you can write about anything related to the reading from this week that you would like to discuss. This is an opportunity to reflect in more depth on something we discuss in class or on something you have noticed about or observed in a reading from this week. No matter what you discuss, your response should be about 2 paragraphs long, and it should be specific. You should select at least 1 specific text from this week to focus on, and you should ground your discussion in at least 1 passage from that text. In fact, a good way to decide what to write about for this response is to think about a specific passage or moment from the text that confuses you, that you can’t explain, or that you don’t understand. While, again, your response should be specific, you don’t need to arrive at any definite conclusions.

Response 8

Response 8 is canceled, but it will count for everyone as if you have turned it in.

Response 9

Your final response paper in this class is an abstract for your final project. This is your opportunity to receive more formal feedback from me about your ideas for the final project and for me to answer any questions you have about the project. First, if you haven’t done so already, you should read the final project assignment page. Then, you can write your response.

Your response should include the following things:

  1. At least 2 of the (at minimum) 5 objects or materials from your archive. For each object, you should provide the name or title of the object, the name of the creator, the publication or posting etc date, and a link to the object or material (or another way for me to access the object or material).
  2. A ~1 paragraph description of the history of queerness and/or queer communities in the present that you are focusing on in your final project.
  3. A ~1-2 paragraph discussion of your archive itself, including how the items you have collected so far go together (how are they connected?), what other objects or materials you plan to gather, and how these objects or materials contribute to the history of the present you want to tell. What will your archive eventually include, and why?
  4. An answer to this question: What (at minimum) 2 texts from our course do you think you want to include in your critical introduction to your archive?
  5. A brief response to this question: Based on the feedback you have received from me throughout the semester and/or your own sense of yourself as a student, writer, and thinker, what are your goals for this assignment? These goals can relate to the subject matter you are writing about, to the writing itself, to your own preparation for and readiness to complete the assignment, to the timeframe in which you want to complete it, etc. There are lots of options – the point is that I would like to hear from you about how you are thinking about and approaching this assignment.