WGSS 40.05 Feminist and Queer Performance at the Limit of Action
What counts as feminist and queer activism? This course challenges what we dominantly understand as activism—key to the emergence of feminist and queer theory and ethnic studies. Moving away from political actions centered in these disciplines, such as strikes, protests, and boycotts, this course will turn to visual and performance art works by artists of color, who consider other forms of action that are not overtly visible, resistant, oppositional, agentive, militant, loud, and documentable. Each week, students will examine a performance at the limit of action, including passivity, silence, and endurance, alongside issues related to gender, sexuality, labor, and immigration among others. How might we approach and reconcile with performances that once again reify notions of racialized and gendered bodies as apolitical, passive, submissive, and compliant? Drawing on scholarship within black and women of color feminist criticism, queer theory, critical ethnic studies, Asian American Studies, and performance studies, this course will attune students to the role of aesthetics to interrogate and expand what we typically conceive of as activism, resistance, and survival from racialized, feminized, and queer positions.