1. ELIT 48C Class 10
Composed or Comprised
The board is composed/
comprised of five members.
2. Composed means, more or less, “made up of” — and when
you say something is composed of {these things} you may
or may not be including all of the {things} of which it is
made, opting for only the items most relevant to making
your point.
To comprise means “to contain” and the correct usage will
usually include ALL the parts making up the whole. Oh, and
with comprise, the whole should come before the parts.
Thus, the board comprises five members, whereas five
members compose (or make up) the board. It is also
correct to say that the board is composed (not comprised)
of five members.
3. AGENDA
Lecture: Lesbian, Gay, and
Queer Criticism
Discussion:
The Great Gatsby
Author introduction:
Susan Glaspell
4. Lesbian criticism is concerned with issues of personal
identity and politics analogous to those analyzed by
feminists (see chapter 4). However, while feminism
addresses issues related to sexism and the difficulties
involved in carving out a space for personal identity and
political action beyond the influence of sexist ideologies,
lesbian critics address issues related to both sexism and
heterosexism. In other words, lesbian critics must deal
with the psychological, social, economic, and political
oppression fostered not only by patriarchal male
privilege, but by heterosexual privilege as well. (Tyson
322-23)
Lesbian Criticism
5. Gay Criticism
The kinds of analyses that tend to engage the attention of gay
critics often fall under the heading of gay sensibility. How does
being gay influence the way one sees the world, sees oneself
and others, creates and responds to art and music, creates and
interprets literature, or experiences and expresses emotion? In
a heterosexist culture such as the one we inhabit at the turn of
the twenty-first century in America, gay sensibility includes an
awareness of being different, at least in certain ways, from the
members of the mainstream, dominant culture, and the
complex feelings that result from an implicit, ongoing social
oppression. In other words, part of seeing the world as a gay
man includes the ways in which one deals with being oppressed
as a gay man. Among others, three important domains of gay
sensibility, all of which involve responses to heterosexist
oppression, are drag, camp, and dealing with the issue of
AIDS. (Tyson 330)
6. Queer Theory
For queer theory, categories of sexuality cannot be defined by such
simple oppositions as homosexual/heterosexual. Building on
deconstruction’s insights into human subjectivity (selfhood) as a
fluid, fragmented, dynamic collectivity of possible “selves,” queer
theory defines individual sexuality as a fluid, fragmented, dynamic
collectivity of possible sexualities. Our sexuality may be different
at different times over the course of our lives or even at different
times over the course of a week because sexuality is a dynamic
range of desire. Gay sexuality, lesbian sexuality, bisexuality, and
heterosexuality are, for all of us, possibilities along a continuum of
sexual possibilities. And what these categories mean to different
individuals will be influenced by how they conceive their own
racial and class identities as well. Thus, sexuality is completely
controlled neither by our biological sex (male or female) nor by the
way our culture translates biological sex into gender roles
(masculine or feminine). Sexuality exceeds these definitions and
has a will, a creativity, an expressive need of its own. (Tyson 335)
7. Finally, lesbian, gay, and queer criticism often rely on
similar kinds of textual evidence. For example, in
addition to the more obvious forms of textual cues—
such as homoerotic imagery and erotic encounters
between same-sex characters—there are rather subtle
textual cues that can create a homoerotic atmosphere
even in an otherwise heterosexual text, as we saw in the
examples of lesbian, gay, and queer criticism provided
earlier. No single textual cue can stand on its own as
evidence of a homoerotic atmosphere in a text. Nor can a
small number of such cues support a lesbian, gay, or
queer reading. But a preponderance of these cues,
especially if coupled with other kinds of textual or
biographical evidence, can strengthen a lesbian, gay, or
queer interpretation even of an apparently heterosexual
text. (Tyson 339)
9. Homosocial bonding—
The depiction of strong emotional ties between same-sex
characters.
Gay or lesbian “signs”—
“feminine” male characters or “masculine” female characters.
coded signs created by the gay or lesbian subculture itself.
Same-sex “doubles”—
same-sex characters who look alike, act alike, or have parallel
experiences.
Transgressive sexuality—
A text’s focus on transgressive sexuality, including transgressive
heterosexuality (such as extramarital romance).
11. Discussion: QHQ
1. Q: Why is it important to read literary texts with marginalized theory
and perspectives?
2. Q: Why is queer theory an important and necessary addition to both
gay and lesbian theories?
3. Q: Is it okay to assert that someone may or not be LGBT using queer
theory? [. . .] If the goal is to assess where LGBT are being
repressed, oppressed and their contribution to literature, is it really
fair to be hypothesizing the author’s sexuality in accordance with the
text?
4. Q: Is patriarchy and heterosexuality inseparable? In other words, can
a person who is heterosexual exist outside of a patriarchal society?
5. Q: Is there a hierarchy in LGBT culture?
12. QHQ: similarities and intersections
1. Q: Why is queer theory an important and necessary addition to
both gay and lesbian theories?
2. Q. Are there any similarities between the oppression of blacks
and the oppression of gays?
3. Q: Does queer (as an umbrella term for the LGBTQXI
community) criticism pertain to the heterosexual?
4. Q: Now that we have covered all these theories, I ask: Do
critics that view literature through these various lenses ever
praise works by white, straight male writers? Or will they
always just see the inherent bias in their works?
5. Q: At what point does diversity within a type of criticism stop
being helpful and start causing discord?
13. QHQ: Bromance in The Great Gatsby
1. If we consider Nick’s life after the events of the novel,
and we allow that those events precipitated his
recognition of his gay desires, might the book itself be
his last protestation against his homo/bisexuality?
2. Why do we call close friendships between two same-
sex characters “bromances” when, if they were of
different sexes, we would assume there is a romantic
undertone to their relationship?
14. Typical questions:
1. What are the politics (ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian,
or queer works, and how are those politics revealed in...the work's
thematic content or portrayals of its characters?
2. What are the poetics (literary devices and strategies) of a specific
lesbian, gay, or queer works?
3. What does the work contribute to our knowledge of queer, gay, or
lesbian experience and history, including literary history?
4. How is queer, gay, or lesbian experience coded in texts that are by
writers who are apparently homosexual?
5. How might the works of heterosexual writers be reread to reveal an
unspoken or unconscious lesbian, gay or queer presence? That is,
does the work have an unconscious lesbian, gay or queer desire or
conflict that it submerges?
15. More Questions
6. What does the work reveal about the operations (socially,
politically, psychologically) homophobic?
7. How does the literary text illustrate the problematics of sexuality
and sexual "identity," that is the ways in which human sexuality
does not fall neatly into the separate categories defined by the
words homosexual and heterosexual?
8. What elements in the text exist in the middle, between the
perceived masculine/feminine binary? In other words, what
elements exhibit traits of both (bisexual)?
9. What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine
(active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how
do the characters support these traditional roles?
10. What sort of support (if any) is given to elements or characters
who question the masculine/feminine binary? What happens to
those elements/characters?
16. Author: Susan Glaspell
On July 1, 1882, Susan Glaspell was born
in Davenport, Iowa. She excelled in
academics as a student, studying Latin
and journalism. After graduation from high
school, she worked as a newspaper
reporter for the Davenport Morning
Republican, then as the society editor for
the Weekly Outlook. From 1897-1899 she
attended Drake University and received a
Ph.D. in Philosophy.
17. At the time of her death in 1948, she
had written fifty short stories, nine
novels, and fourteen plays; most of
these works feature strong female
protagonists and stories that focus
on the experiences of women.
Perhaps not surprisingly, her work
faded from public interest during the
conservative1950s, and practically
disappeared from bookshelves and
the stages of amateur theatres. Yet
in the past few decades, her work is
being reexamined and celebrated
by a new group of critics and
audiences.
18. HOMEWORK
Read Trifles (1916) pp. 252-262
Post # 10 In literature, a symbol is
something that represents something
else, and is often used to communicate
deeper levels of meaning. What is one
important symbol in Trifles? How does
Glaspell use it to propel the plot and
convey deeper levels of meaning about
her characters or themes?
Or QHQ Trifles
Consider its articulation with one of the
Modern Manifestos, if you can.
