This interdisciplinary seminar brings together the fields of Latinx studies, queer of color critique, and Decolonial feminism(s) to examine the lived experiences, politics, and literary and artistic production of trailblazing Queer Latinx artists, thinkers, and writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa, José Esteban Muñoz, Félix González-Torres, and numerous others. Students will be introduced to key concepts and ideas that will range from intersectionality to racial capitalism, or the “coloniality of gender” (Lugones, 2008) to understand how race, racialization, ethnicity, and class have affected and shaped the ways in which Latinxs express sexual and gender identities. In class, we will model the queer practice of interrogating norms and traditions by exploring major interventions and contributions that push the limits of Latinx criticism. Topics will include the AIDS epidemic, trans* Latinx poetics and aesthetics, coming out and coming of age narratives, or reimaginations of family and kinship. By conducting in-depth analyses of memoirs, poems, essays, fiction, artworks, performances, and films, we will explore various questions: How have LGBTQIA+ Latinx creators and thinkers shaped and intervened in U.S. politics and history? What are the contributions Queer Latinx critique has made to critical race studies or feminist and/or queer theory at large? How do these writers and artists engage with queerness as a means of expanding dominant understandings of Latinidad?
EMR 166