“There might be—There are, of course, 99 names of Allah, but then there are 52 n*****s, and so, therefore we are playing two of these n*****s. That’s why I use that word guerrilla: It means a guerrilla is someone who is, in any case, sacrificing his life for a point of view, and, you know, if there is a cause—and if it is a great cause—those who belong to that cause will sacrifice their blood, there is no cause, so, therefore, that is the reason that I use ‘gay guerrilla’ in hopes that I might be one, if called upon to be one,” says Julius Eastman who wrote Gay Guerrilla and Evil N*****s.
These and other books are part of a new course The University of Utah added to their English Department, “Black Trans Lesbian Marxists Who Scare You (And Are Probably Pro-Palestinian too).”
The teacher, Dr. Craig Dworkin, wrote this on the class schedule site were the course is found about the course aims: “Current right-wing rhetoric seeks to demonize, demean, silence, and erase certain people. This seminar will try to figure out what the reactionaries are so afraid of. Considering a range of genres—from science-fiction to memoir, poetry to film, music to critical theory—We will analyze how the aesthetics of resistance and radical refusal developed over the last century. Plus, we will consider some unthreatening writers who wield a politically powerful and capaciously comforting reassurance (we’re all about the viewpoint diversity).”
Other readings in the course include; Mucus In My Pineal Gland by Steven Zultanski, The Autobiography of Lady Gaga by Stefani J. Alveraz, Synthetic Little Monster by Cameron Awkward-Rich. These include explicit sexual language, with Synthetic Little Monsters containing poems such as F****t Poetics, Vagina Monologues, and Argument for The Low Budget Gay Movie.
This English course is bringing understanding to literature from the modern century and bringing in conversation the topics they include. English courses generally are about analyzing and understanding, its taking a piece of writing and dissecting what it’s trying to say.
Photo courtesy of the university website
