Performing Identities: Cross-Dressing and Gendered Personas in Drama

Catalog description

This course explores the feminist claim that gender identity is performative in a very literal sense. Working with the theories of Judith Butler, Marjorie Garber, and Monique Wittig (among others), we will study playtexts whose characters subvert the notion that identity is stable, biologically predetermined, and absolute. As we study these plays from a literary and feminist perspective, we will simultaneously be acting them out: presenting scenes, developing roles, learning how to perform identities that are not biological. The blending of theory and practice allows us to test questions about self-representation, to examine issues of crossing boundaries and passing, to explore the fluidity of identity, and to discover the power of transvestism. Restrictions/Requirements: Sophomore standing.