A close reading of Paul B Preciado's 'Testo Junkie' (2013)
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction to class topic & overview of the syllabus
Introduction to class topic and overview of the syllabus 21 Sept
Who is Paul B Preciado? 23 Sept
Reading:
“How to do a close reading” (Patricia Kain, 1998)
WEEK 2: ‘Testo Junkie’ as an autofiction?
Autofiction, autobiography, auto-ethnography 28 Sept
Is ‘Testo Junkie’ an autofiction? 30 Sept
Paul B Preciado's lecture at JCU /Digital Delights & Disturbances 2 Oct
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘Introduction’, ‘Testo Junkie’
Dix, H. (2017) ‘Autofiction: the Forgotten Face of French Theory’, World and Text: A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics vol VII
Excerpts from: Dix, H. ed (2018) ‘Autofiction in English’
WEEK 3: Queer autofictions
Class discussion on Autofiction 5 Oct
Queer autofictions 7 Oct
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘1. Your Death’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from: Maggie Nelson ‘The Argonauts’
Excerpts from: Mckenzie Wark ‘Reverse Cowgirl’
WEEK 4: Queer bodies and the construction of gender
Class discussion on queer autofictions 12 Oct
Gender as a ‘medical fiction’ 14 Oct
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘3. Testogel’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Andrea Long Chu ‘My New Vagina Won’t Make me Happy’ The New York Times, 24 Nov 2018
Excerpts from: Judith Halberstam (1998) ‘Female Masculinity’
Watching:
Contrapoints ‘What is gender?’; ‘High Heels’; FHAR Front homosexual d’action revolutionnaire; Motus ‘Middlesex’.
WEEK 5: Body, molecules, floating identities
Class discussion on the construction of gender 19 Oct
Body, molecules, floating identities 21 Oct
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘5. In Which the Body of VD Becomes the Element in an Experimental Context’ & ‘7. Becoming T’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Valerie Solanas ‘SCUM Manifesto’ (1967)
Watching:
‘Baise-moi’
WEEK 6: ‘Gender Identity Disorder’
Class discussion on floating identities 26 Oct
Gender Identity Disorder 28 Oct
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘9. Testo-Mania’ & ‘11. Jimi and me’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from: Virginie Despentes ‘King Kong Theory’
Excerpts from: Mckenzie Wark ‘Reverse Cowgirl’
WEEK 7: From biopolitics to the pharmacopornographic regime
Midterm wrap up discussion 2 Nov
The new pharmacopornographic era 4 Nov
‘The ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye’ 6 Nov
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘2. The Pharmacopornographic Era’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from Michel Foucault 'History of Sexuality' - Achille Mbembe 'Necropolitics'
WEEK 8: Technosexuality
Class discussion on the pharmacopornographic era 9 Nov
Technosexuality? 11 Nov
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘4. Technosexuality’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from Michel Foucault 'History of Sexuality'- Jacques Derrida 'The work of mourning'
WEEK 9: Technogender
Class discussion on technosexuality 16 Nov
Technogender 18 Nov
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘6. Technogender’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from Michel Foucault 'History of Sexuality'- Jacques Derrida 'The work of mourning'
WEEK 10: Capitalism and postcolonial violence in the pharmacopornographic era
class discussion on technogender 23 Nov
Violence in the pharmacopornographic regime 25 Nov
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘8. Pharmacopower’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
Excerpts from Michel Foucault 'History of Sexuality' - Achille Mbembe 'Necropolitics'
WEEK 11: Pornography and labor
class discussion on violence in the pharmacopornographic regime 30 Nov
Pornography and labor 2 Dec
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘10. Pornpower’, in ‘Testo Junkie’
WEEK 12
Hacking the binary: on liberation, gender and sexuality
Class discussion on pornography and labor 7 Dec
Wrap up: Hacking the binary 9 Dec
Reading:
Paul B Preciado ‘12. The Micropolitics of Gender in the Pharmacopornographic era: Experimentation, Voluntary Intoxication, Mutation’ & ’13. Eternal Life’, in ‘Testo Junkie’