Module Directory

Queer is a module about queer literature, culture, and history. Beginning with the influential case of the Wilde trial in the final years of the Victorian period, the Queer is a module about queer literature, culture, and history.

Beginning with the influential case of the Wilde trial in the final years of the Victorian period, the module traces some of the main strands of queer culture throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. As well as reading a selection of classic works of gay and lesbian fiction, students will also engage with journalism, letters, essays, memoir, visual art, documentary, film drama, and queer theory.

Drawing on these varied sources, we will explore the modern cultural history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gender-diverse people. Topics addressed include: the shifting status of same-sex desire in western culture; homosexuality in the nineteenth century; gay rights in the twentieth century; gay and lesbian fiction and memoir; constructions of gender and sexuality within medical and psychiatric discourse; intersectionality; black lesbian feminism; discourse, knowledge, and power; the Stonewall uprising and its precursors; the AIDS epidemic; the New Queer Cinema; transgender identity and activism; queer theory; LGBTQ Hollywood and world cinema; and contemporary queer culture. The module takes a comparative, interdisciplinary approach in order to show how the topics addressed have been taken up in different mediums and in varying cultural and historical contexts. While much of our focus will be on historical examples, consideration will be given throughout to how the texts on the syllabus illuminate present-day issues and debates.

The aims of this module are:

• To foster students’ critical thinking and cultural awareness by inviting them to explore the modern cultural history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gender-diverse people.


• To have close engagement with the work of a diverse group of twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, filmmakers, and theorists, students will reflect on what queer texts can teach us about society, history, politics, culture, race, gender, and sexuality. Students will acquire or deepen their knowledge of a range of texts, from established classics such as Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis (1897) and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928) to queer theory and cinema in the twenty-first century.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Have a thorough understanding of a number of key works of queer literature, cinema, and theory and of the themes they explore


2. Have a critical understanding of a number of key moments from queer history and of the issues they raise


3. Gain knowledge of and an ability to evaluate the social and political significance of queer history and culture.


4. Have the ability to approach their own historical moment from a perspective informed by their study of queer history and culture.


5. Gain the knowledge and skills required to engage in intellectual debates around all of the above.

Module content note:

Topics may include sexual assault, suicide, violence, torture (physical and mental), pornographic content, death or dying, miscarriages/abortion, racism and racial slurs, sexism and misogyny, classism, hateful language (e.g., Islamophobia, antisemitism), transphobia and trans misogyny, and homophobia and heterosexism. Please contact the module supervisor if you have any questions.

Indicative syllabus

• The Wilde Trial


• The Advent of Queer Fiction


• Queer Fiction in the United States


• The Stonewall Uprising


• Power, Knowledge, and Discourse


• The AIDS Epidemic


• Queer Utopias and Dystopias


• Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Class


• Transgender Identity and Activism


• Gender Abolitionism

This module will be delivered via:

• Weekly three-hour seminars.