Stephanie Clare
sclare@uw.edu
Meeting Time: MW, 1:30 – 3:20 PM
Meeting location: ECE 042
Office Hours: By appointment and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:30
ENGL 556A/407A: Autotheory in Feminist, Queer, and Trans Studies
This course has students read contemporary work in feminist, queer, and trans studies that might be understood as “autotheoretical,” such as scholarship by Jennifer Nash, Lynne Huffer, and Carlos Decena. Together, we ask, why are so many scholars in these fields now turning to this style and method? What does this form of writing allow and what might it miss? Our readings contextualize the recent scholarship within the history of feminist, queer, and trans thought, with a focus on method (standpoint epistemologies, situated knowledge, theory-in-the-flesh, and testimonios). We also draw on scholarship about life writing to make sense of this current trend.
Students complete the following assignments:
- 7 informal response papers (called zero drafts) – graded pass/fail
- A longer essay (10-12 pages for graduate students; 8-10 for undergraduate students). Students are welcome to embark on autotheoretical projects of their own.
Course Materials:
- Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (Minneapolis: Greywolf Press, 2016).
- Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of my Brief Body (Columbus, OH: Two Dollar Radio, 2020).
- Anne Boyer, The Undying (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019),
- Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023).
- Jan Grue, I Live a Life Like Yours(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021).
- All other texts are available as PDFs either through the library or on Canvas.
- Introduction and Framing Scholarship
March 31: Introduction
Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (we will read in class)
April 2: Some key texts on autobiography
Jean Starobinski, “The Style of Autobiography,” Literary Style: A Symposium (London: Oxford UP, 1971). Canvas
Paul de Man, “Autobiography as Defacement,” The Rhetoric of Romanticism (New York: Columbia UP, 1984). Canvas
David Marriott, “Autobiography as Effacement,” Of Effacement: Blackness and Non-Being (Stanford University Press, 2023). Canvas
April 4 Zero draft 1 due
April 7: “Autotheory”
Vilashini Cooppan, “Skin, Kin, Kind, I/you/we: Autotheory’s Compositional Grammar,” ASAP Journal 6.3 (September 2021): 583-605. Canvas
Arianne Zwartjes, “Autotheory as Rebellion: On Research, Embodiment, and Imagination in Creative Nonfiction,” MQR (2019). Canvas
Anna Kornbluh, “Antitheory,” Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism (New York: Verso, 2024). Canvas
April 9:
Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016), p. 1-58.
- Before “Autotheory”
April 14:
Patricia J. Williams, “On Being an Object of Property,” Signs 14.1 (Autumn 1988): 5-24. (Canvas)
Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga, “Introduction, 1981,” “Entering the Lives of Others: Theory in the Flesh,” and “La Guerra,” This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Albany: SUNY Press, [1981] 2015). (Canvas)
Norma Alarcón, “The Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism,” Criticism in the Borderlands 28-40 (Durham, Duke UP, 2020). P.28-40. (Canvas)
April 11 Zero draft 2 due
April 16
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” Feminist Studies 14.3 (Autumn 1988): 575-599. (Canvas)
April 18 Zero draft 3 due
April 21
Susan Stryker, “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix.” GLQ 1 (1994): 237-254. (Canvas)
Dean Spade, “Mutilating Gender,” Makezine (Spring 2000). (Canvas)
April 23
Joan W. Scott, “The Evidence of Experience,” Critical Inquiry 17.4 (Summer 1991): 773-797. Canvas
April 25 Zero draft 4 due
- Contemporary Works of “Autotheory”
April 28
Carlos Decena, Circuits of the Sacred (Durham: Duke UP, 2023), p. 1-78. Library
April 30
Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023).
May 2 Zero draft 5 due
May 5
Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of my Brief Body (Columbus, OH: Two Dollar Radio, 2020).
May 7
Anne Boyer, The Undying (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), p. 1-87.
May 9 Zero draft 6 due
May 12
Jan Grue, I Live a Life Like Yours (New York: Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021).
May 14
Jennifer Nash, How We Write Now: Living with Black Feminist Theory (Durham: Duke UP, 2024). UW library
May 16 Zero draft 7 due
May 19 Proposal due
May 21 In class writing session
May 28 In class writing session
June 2 In class writing session
June 4 Rough draft due, in class peer review
Assignments:
- Seven free writing assignments (zero drafts), 3% each (21 % total)
These assignments are meant to get you writing and thinking. They are not about producing a polished text but rather about jotting down notes or thinking in prose. Overall, I want you to be thinking about the reading we’ve discussed this week. What was interesting about it? What don’t you understand? What do you think is great about the text? Is there something that bothers you about it? Is there something strange or surprising? Quite simply, what has reading the text made you think? You might want to focus on one passage of the text in particular, or you might want to draw connections between this text and another text we have read in class. There is no right or wrong here as long as you are engaging with the course material. The simple goal is just to think in words, to write freely.
Behavioral psychologists claim that we can only concentrate on writing for about 25 minutes at a time. For this reason, I ask that you spend 25 minutes on each of these assignments. Turn off the Internet. Turn off your phone. Find a space where you will have no distractions. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and then, 25 minutes later, you will be done!
In general, I expect undergraduates to produce about 500 words and grad students, about 750. If you write significantly less then that, please email me to let me know that you did indeed spend the allotted time on these.
Please submit your free writing assignments on Canvas.
- Class participation (29%)
Students learn in different ways: some are quiet and others are not. In either case, I expect students to come regularly and on time to class:
- having read the day’s assigned reading
- having brought the assigned readings to class
- being willing to listen to each other, discuss and work together.
Students in this class are encouraged to speak up and participate during class meetings. Because the class will represent a diversity of individual beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences, every member of this class must show respect for every other member of this class.
Students will be graded for participation in the following way:
50%: active presence, which is to say, attending class regularly and actively partaking in discussion.
50%: preparation, coming to class having read the day’s readings and ready to discuss them (with passages and questions to consider)
- Essays (50%)
Students will write one final essay. This essay is scaffolded with a proposal (due May 19), rough draft (due June 4), and final draft. Students will receive feedback on their proposals and rough drafts. We will discuss possible topics as the quarter progresses, and I will also handout rubrics. I will also explain what I expect for the proposal and the rough draft.
Basic Essay expectations:
Graduate students – 10-12 pages, 5-10 outside sources
Undergraduate students: 8-10 pages, 3-5 outside sources
Proposal: 5%
Rough draft: 5%
Final essay: 40%
Course Policies
- Please bring the readings to class
- Please turn off your phones in class
- Please submit work on time.
- Please submit all your assignments on Canvas. I will be running your assignments through the university’s plagiarism program.
- Please do not use generative text AI to write your work.
Statement on Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university’s imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas.
When an instance of suspected or alleged academic dishonesty by a student arises, it shall be resolved according to the procedures standard at the University of Washington. These procedures are listed here: https://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf
Using AI to write or research your papers counts as plagiarism.
I will be giving students a 0 for work that is plagiarized.
Statement on Accessibility
Should any student require accommodation for physical or learning disabilities, please talk to me or see UW’s Accessibility Resource Office. Information on this office can be found here: http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/
Religious Accommodations
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
English Department’s Statement of Values:
The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use is powerful and holds the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world—skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”
As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities. Our disciplinary commitments to the study of language, literature, and culture require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and class. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.
Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, genders, national origins, political views, and citizenship status; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.
Grading Scale:
|
Letter |
Number |
Percentage |
|
A + |
4.0 |
100 |
|
A |
4.0 |
95 |
|
A- |
3.8 |
92 |
|
B+ |
3.4 |
88 |
|
B |
3.1 |
85 |
|
B- |
2.8 |
82 |
|
C+ |
2.4 |
78 |
|
C |
2.1 |
75 |
|
C- |
1.8 |
72 |
|
D+ |
1.4 |
68 |
|
D |
1.1 |
65 |
|
|
|
|