The Poetics and Politics of Pronouns (CD or LA)

Subject associations
COM 396 / GER 396 / ENG 396 / GSS 337
Term
Fall 2024
Instructors
Daniel L. Hoffman-Schwartz
Registrar description

Why do non-binary pronouns make (some) people so angry? How do pronouns regulate our relation to the world, to one another, and to gender? This seminar investigates the history of theoretical reflection on and literary experimentation with pronouns. How does the constitution of the "I" grant access to the symbolic order? How does second-person address produce ethical relationality? How can the enunciation of the "we" avoid coercion and instead model flourishing, robustly multiplicitous community? Can the singular "they" circumvent the traps of gendered language? Readings in poetry, gender theory, linguistics, philosophy, political thought.