CMPL 347 - Sophistications: Queer Postwar New York-Paris Connections

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
While we correctly remember the ‘50s and early ‘60s in America as an era of Cold War, conformism, and consumption, some elements of U.S. culture in New York kept this world at bay by invoking bohemian Paris. Whether in highbrow forms like painting, auteur cinema, or experimental drama, or in the almost clandestine world of underground gay culture, Paris was a queer password. In this course we will focus on the era’s libertines and gender traitors, while also critically examining the concept of “sophistication,” a knowingness that does not at times rule out acts–and art–of reckless folly.

This course is cross-listed with GSFS-347