This advanced seminar addresses some of the many meanings and manifestations of “gender performance” in literature and popular culture. Primary sources include a wide variety of media -- novels, plays, poems, films, magazines and cartoons. Sample sources: works by William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bishop, Sarah Waters, David Henry Hwang, Diane DiMassa, Ian Iqbal Rashid; films such as Osama, The Ballad of Little Jo, Tootsie; postcards, Playboy, Ms. Magazine, news articles and advertisements. Primary material will be balanced with careful consideration of work in areas such as feminist theory, identity politics, queer and performance theory. The course is divided into distinct theme-based units, e.g. transvestism, gender identity, etiquette, beauty and the body, regulation of the household, violence, maternity, the trans community. Cross-listed with English. PREREQUISITES: Third or Fourth-year standing in Gender Studies or SXGD or permission of the Department.