This course investigates discourses of the self, both contemporary and historical, in a variety of genres, including philosophy, theory, literature, visual media, and new media, depending on the instructor and year. Topics to be covered may include any of the following: problems of the self, identity (racial, ethnic, gendered), self-expression, self-fashioning, self-destitution, and the limits of the self as an experience or a category. No prerequisites.

This class looks at models of subjectivation and identity formation as situational, whether in dynamics of rejection and stigma, or interpellation and indoctrination. We will read phenomenology, existentialism, queer theory, queer of color critique, film theory, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and trans theory from writers such as Jean Paul Sartre, Didier Eribon, José Esteban Muñoz, Julia Kristeva, bell hooks, D. W. Winnicott, Alison Bechdel, and Susan Stryker. Additionally, we will critically engage with film representations of identity, from horror to documentary.

Credit Restrictions

Students will receive no credit for RHETOR 120 after completing RHETOR 120. A deficient grade in RHETOR 120 may be removed by taking RHETOR 120.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.