Genre Trouble: Monsterous Texts and Experiments in Writing

Catalog description

Genres are not to be mixed. I will not mix genres. I repeat: genres are not to be mixed. I will not mix them. So begins Jacques Derrida’s 1979 lecture, “The Law of Genre,” in which he argues that systems of generic taxonomy depend on principals of exclusion and reveal anxieties about “mixing,” “crossing,” and “hybridity.” Derrida’s argument becomes even more significant when we consider the fact that the French word “genre” also means “gender.” In this course, we will get messy and examine what happens when we play with genre. We will undertake this exploration by analyzing the relations between genre and identity through figures of monstrosity and experimentation. How do works of literature exploit and violate the “law of genre?” How do disparate forms of writing negotiate meanings around gender and racial identity? How do figures of the “monstrous” invite us to analyze the definition of the “human,” as well who is included and excluded from this category? We will read literary and critical texts by authors such as Mary Shelley, Toni Morrison, Marie de France, Judith Butler, Susan Stryker, Hélène Cixous, Assata Shakur, Jacques Derrida, and Frank Wilderson. Writing assignments will encourage students to experiment with their creative and critical voices.