Professions of Desire

by Haggerty, George E.; Zimmerman, Bonnie

• ISBN13: 9780873525633
• ISBN10: 0873525639
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-03-01
• Publisher: Modern Language Assn of Amer

Summary

Professions of Desire includes examples of lesbian and gay literary analysis and thoughtful discussions about what it means to be lesbian, gay, or queer in the literature classroom. The four essays in the first section, "Teaching Positions", examine teaching from a theoretical perspective, analyze the role of the professor in the classroom, and seek to redefine what instructors ask of their students as well as of themselves. In "Canons and Closets", five essays focus on curricular and organizational shifts warranted by lesbian and gay studies. "Sameness and Differences" presents five essays that explore the influence of race, gender, and sexuality on gay and lesbian identity. Finally, the section "Transgressing Subjects" gathers four provocative critical readings of various works, including Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest; the art and sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Constantin Brancusi, and Gustav Klimt; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's Iola Leroy; and the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Wait Whitman. "This insightful and groundbreaking volume is full of unexpected pleasures and is sure to be a foundational work in gay studies for years to come.... A readable, serious addition to the literature". Choice

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction	p. 1
"Promoting Homosexuality" in the Classroom	p. 11
Pedagogy and Sexuality	p. 19
Toward an Antihomophobic Pedagogy	p. 31
The Student and the Strap: Authority and Seduction in the Class(room)	p. 38
What Is Lesbian Literature? Forming a Historical Canon	p. 49
Teaching the Postmodern Renaissance	p. 60
Lesbian Modernism: (Trans)Forming the (C)Anon	p. 72
Race, Homosocial Desire, and "Mammon" in Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man	p. 84
Lesbian Poetry in the United States, 1890-1990: A Brief Overview	p. 98
Teaching Differences: Theory and Practice in a Lesbian and Gay Studies Seminar	p. 113
Expanding the Categories of Race and Sexuality in Lesbian and Gay Studies	p. 124
Explicit Instruction: Teaching Gay Male Sexuality in Literature Classes	p. 136
The Lesbian Narrative: "The Pursuit of the Inedible by the Unspeakable"	p. 156
Anal/yzing the Classroom: On the Impossibility of a Queer Pedagogy	p. 169
The Disappearance of the Homosexual in The Picture of Dorian Gray	p. 183
Tales of the Avunculate: Queer Tutelage in The Importance of Being Earnest	p. 191
Private Affairs: Race, Sex, Property, and Persons	p. 210
Memorial Rags	p. 233
Index	p. 241
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.