EN423 The Politics of Desire: Women, Writing and Culture

By mid 1996 I had two of the four subjects needed for a PG Dip Arts. I had studied mainly medieval English, but was struggling to find a subject that fit my availability and bravely chose this one.

I should have known better and spent a semester so far out my area, depth and comfort zone that I am still recovering. It was fantastic but terrifying. I recall two male participants originally, but the other one disappeared very quickly. I figured out that, as a male, I struggled with the feminist part of the course. I was too stupid to note how heavy the queer lit emphasis was and that that was also going to be difficult for a boring 35 year old straight male.

The convener was Bronwen Levy, who had a long career at UQ and is now an emeritus. She is the first of my old lecturers that I have found on twitter.

I recall this was one of the first courses where access to the internet made a real difference.

Assessment was two essays (40% and 60%) and a non-assessable but compulsory seminar based on something from one of the essays. It appears I was allocated Gloria Anzaldua for week 9. I recall getting some pushback with my suggestion that she was anything other than perfect.

The book list (pretty much one a week) will give the flavour of the course:

Woolf, Orlando

Franklin, Cockatoos

Marshall, Brown Girl Brownstones

Duffy, The Microcosm

Kingston, The Woman Warrior

Harris, Lover

Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera

Farmer, The Seal Woman

Walwicz, Red Roses

Bedford, If with a Beating Heart

Galford, The Dyke and the Dybbuk

A couple of these were hard to get and may have been scratched. I know I photocopied the entire book, Red Roses, because it was out of print. Unfortunately, it had no punctuation at all and had a bit of the “Finnegan’s Wake” about it so I didn’t get past a couple of pages.