This class dissects the dominant, binary (male/female) notion of gender, as it has been constructed in relation to heteropatriarchal norms and systems of signification. We look at the dissolution of these rigid concepts and consider alternative (and multiple) sites of gender-identification through the lens of gender theory, fictional works (novels and poetry) and visual material (art, film, and music). We ask in what way these gendered subversions of traditional discourses engage (or fail to engage) the intersections of gender with race, sexuality, class, ability and other identity categories.
