Gender and Modern Transgressive Fiction

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

Transgressive fiction, as the name of this particular literary genre suggests, seems primarily concerned with the breaking, the transgression of societal and cultural boundaries, norms, values, and taboo. As such, accusations of nihilism are never far off when it comes to review, and even criticism, pertaining to transgressive fiction, with critics describing the genre as, for example, "literature of self-defined immorality, anguish, and degradation [that] is constantly waxing and waning in our culture" (James Gardner, "National Review"). These accusations of nihilism, however, misrecognize the potential of the genre for the creation of narratives - and worlds - with domineering norms and values that are at odds with mainstream culture and society.

It is this potential that we seek to investigate in the seminar, specifically in terms of sex, sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender. In their "refusal to engage with the recuperated articulations of the dominant culture" (Allan Lloyd Smith, "Abjection/Abjectivism), works of transgressive fiction display a remarkable tendency towards depicting and laying a distinct focus on the non-standard, the deviant, the abject, and in the process, rendering it as the norm.

The first half of the seminar will be devoted to the study of feminist criticism, after which students will be asked to analyze selected works of transgressive fiction from a feminist perspective.

Please purchase:

Eugenides, Jeffrey. "Middlesex." (ISBN 9780312991739)
Nutting, Alissa. "Tampa." (ISBN 9780571303342)
Palahniuk, Chuck. "Invisible Monsters Remix." (ISBN 9780099575054)

*Please note*: many of the primary works we read in this course feature graphic depictions of sex and/or violence.

Students will be required to...

- participate actively and regularly,
- discuss and familiarize themselves with feminist criticism,
- discuss and familiarize themselves with transgressive fiction as a genre,
- pass a number of short quizzes,
- write a term paper (4.000-5.000 words).