Gender and Queer Studies

The aim of the course is to train students in theoretical and methodological reflection on gender studies and queer theories as applied to literary texts and literary phenomena, providing them with in-depth knowledge of the field's key concepts, categories, and debates. The course also aims to equip students with tools to examine, from a historical and comparative perspective, processes of canon formation and interpretive practices, highlighting their epistemic, cultural, social, and political implications.

Expected learning outcomes include: knowledge of the main theoretical developments in gender studies and queer theories and their critical vocabulary; the ability to identify and articulate fundamental methodological issues; the ability to apply these tools to the analysis and interpretation of literary texts from different periods and in different forms, recognising how gender and sexuality shape the construction of subjectivities, aesthetics, and narrative and poetic forms; the ability to critically discuss the assumptions and effects of the interpretive readings proposed, assessing their strengths and limitations; the ability to relate theoretical and methodological reflection to the practices of literary criticism and to problematise the institutional and cultural conditions of the production, transmission, and teaching of literature