Life Writing as a Democratizing Practice: Hybrid Feminist and Queer Writing 1960-1990

This course will look at life writing as a democratizing genre: an activist genre that has a higher potential for generating and performing transformative agency from the social margin, due to its accessibility and openness. We will engage with hybrid feminist and queer writing, which crosses boundaries between life writing, fiction, and theoretical writing, and explore its relevance for the Western socio-political discourse on democracy and social justice in the 20^th Century. Thinking of literary writing as cultural activism, we will look at the interplay between political structures and hierarchies and social activism performed from the margins through activities such as life writing and theorizing from personal experience.

The course is research-oriented and it aims to provide the participants with an opportunity to do both independent and group research work on the topics of their own interest. In the introductory part, we will focus on queer and feminist writing of the period of Second-wave feminism and the time of its “transformation” to Third-wave feminism, between the late 1960s to the 1990s. This period is chosen for its theorizing of the importance of the personal narrative for the political existence, reflected in the tenet “The personal is political”, as well as its particularly marked contribution of feminist and LGBT political-activist movements to the democratic changes and progress in the Western sphere. We will analyse selected writing within the political context of the period and in connection to the specific movements and the achievements made in the political and legal spheres in terms of gender, sexuality, race and class equality and visibility. In both the individual and group work we will explore connections between the pressing social issues in the second half of the 20^th century and the current discourses on gender, queerness and race.

For their own projects, the participants will be encouraged to engage with examples from either their own context, or from the context they are working in or wish to learn more about, and to present the results of their research in a creative and personalized way. The course welcomes both MA and BA students (BA: preferably later semesters) with an interest in literature, cultural studies, and cultural activism.

The course is a Circle U.-Team course; it will be conducted digitally, in English language, and it is expected to have international participation. Interested participants can contact the Circle U.-Team leader Tijana Ristic Kern at tijanaristickern@gmail.com for all questions.