In 1990s, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick claimed that “The closet is the defining structure for gay oppression in this century.” In 2014, Suzanna Danuta Walters summarized a cultural consensus that seemed to suggest “the days of the closet are over.” What both agree on is the significance of the closet as indicator of how individuals and societies understand queer sexuality and its place in culture. As a metaphor for the policing of (sexual) knowledge, the closet is connected to the stakes of visibility, structures of ignorance, and forms of censorship, and thus invites us to ponder what we can learn about a culture through what and how it refuses to know.
In this seminar, we will therefore first engage with theoretical discussions of the closet metaphor and similar epistemic formations such as the open secret. In a second step, we will look at media representations of the closet, of coming out narratives and similar forms of in/visibility to reflect on the politics of representation and identify formation in the context of the unsaid or the unspeakable. Our media examples will range from classical Hollywood Cinema to “prestige TV” to search engine algorithms.
The course is thus designed to allow students to acquaint themselves with key texts and concepts from queer studies as well as central analytic skills related to media studies and cultural studies.
This class will be taught in a blended format, combining asynchronous assignments with in-classroom meetings.
- Dozent/in: Elisa Herrmann
- Dozent/in: Katrin Horn