This post is my attempt to lay out some of the work that Heather and I accomplished at the end of the semester, but never got around to posting in a vaguely coherent form here. It's a post that will help share our definition, as it were, of "queer" in our usage, and how we're going to go about completing our project.
"Queer", as we're using it represents a theoretical mo(ve)ment which seeks to destabilize and trouble normative structures, social practices, and definitions, to expand and change the manner in which we define the world and each other, and furthermore trouble the notion of "definition." This mo(ve)ment is inextricably to an understanding of sexuality, queerness, in the mode of Gayle Rubin's "Thinking Sex," in many ways this second definition positions queer as both the product of and parallel to feminism, and a functioning identity umbrella for people who sleep with people they're "not supposed to" (or in a manner that they're "not supposed to").
One one down, one to go:
Basically, each week (or so) we're going to look at a given selection of poetry and/or theory, dividing it up as needed. Our readings will certainly overlap, there will be a lot of material that we'll both read, but in order to cover as much ground as we can we'll split some of the material up. We'll post notes/summaries/interaction here, with what we read. During the first half of the semester, we'll have more reading, we'll have fun with the material. Clearly the "project" will loom large in our thoughts, but we won't be drafting or even outlining at this point. By a week or two before spring break, we'll have produced a "plan of attack" for completing the symposium paper, and the final essay. Which we will spend break, and the remainder of the semester completing according to plan. April 13th, is the spring symposium day. The semester ends in early May.
There you have it. Stay tuned.