This course will dive deeply into the work of three early figures of queer theory (Foucault, Sedgwick, and Butler) and into four key features of contemporary queer theory (queer of colour theory, transgender theory, crip theory, and queer theories of space). Queer theorists are often referred to in English classes; after all, what English student hasn’t heard a quick summary of panopticism, homosociality, or performativity? Yet, it is rare that students have the chance to study these authors in a sustained way. While we will trace out the influence of Sedgwick, Butler, and Foucault on several contemporary subfields, we will also ask about the slanted process of canon formation. Are there ways in which these apparent “offshoots” were present in queer theory from its (ambiguous, complex) beginnings? How, we will ask, can today’s readers of queer theory attend to the field’s dual commitments to politics and to bodies? Students will be evaluated on seminar presentations, discussions, critical writing, and (optionally) creative or hybrid-genre responses.