Performing Queerness

Catalog description

Performing Queerness course will examine how we develop and question different meanings around queer bodies through performance practices in everyday life and on stage. We will analyze how queer identities are regulated, reinforced, recreated, and subverted through embodied modes of performance. Some of the questions we will discuss are: What is queer performance? Is queer performance a matter of identity or aesthetics? Spatial and temporal influences on our understanding of queer performance? Does queer necessarily mean radical? What are some examples of international queer performance? Does queer performance change based on a culture or is there a shared sense of what it is? What is the connection between queerness and globalization? In countries with high levels of homophobia queerness is often seen as a Western import – how much are artists contributing to cultural colonialism? Does audience affect our understanding of the performance? What is the relationship between class and performance? What is the connection between the gender identity in performance and queerness? We will look at a brief history of LGBTQ performance and its current connection to mass media. We will look at a variety of performances – in mass media, through social networks as well as live performances – theater, drag, burlesque, poetry and more.