ENG 337 THE LITERATURE OF PASSING

Explorations of various forms of "passing"--black as white, Jew as gentile, woman as man, gay as straight--in literature and film. Issues include the notion of a visible or marked "identity," motives for passing, comparisons between different forms of passing, and meanings of "coming out." Literary works to be studied may include Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Chestnutt's The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, Larsen's Passing, Cather's My Antonia, Leavitt's The Lost Language of Cranes, and Gates's "White Like Me." Films may include The Crying Game, Paris Is Burning, and Europa, Europa. Secondary readings in feminist, gay and lesbian/queer, and critical race theory.