So, this week I've been have a very difficult struggle with figuring out exactly what makes a work fit within the boundaries of this class. The nature of the transgenre, transgender, and transcultural themes is to be very vague, which makes it extremely difficult to figure out exactly what constitutes a work that fits the class's goal. I think I am slowly getting a handle on it, but I am not entirely sure. This is how far i got.
I understand that one of the most important aspects of this class is the cultural aspects. All of our readings have worked to subvert the expectations that were placed on the authors due to their status within their own cultures. This is an idea I can very easily get behind, and I greatly enjoy the idea of writers being free to do whatever they feel they are most compelled to do. Not conforming to cultural standards is a huge part of not only this class, but also the whole creative writing program here at EMU and i really appreciate that aspect.
Transgender is a little trickier to me. I would think that it simply means to not conform to gender roles assigned to the author, but that doesn't always seem like a very reachable goal. Several of the pieces we have read are by authors who identify as homosexual, and in doing so they are able to defy the gender roles placed upon them. However, the actual texts themselves often don't seem to embody this spirit quite so clearly for myself. If I were to attempt to write a trans gender piece, I am not sure how I could go about it. The absence of transgender in my life is a possible topic, but I am not sure how much emotion I could really derive from a theme like that. I may have certain interests here and there that are not inherently masculine, but especially because I dislike writing about my experiences anyway, I don't find this avenue to be something I really understand. I feel there are likely other ways to incorporate these themes into my writing that I have simply overlooked, and I hope to uncover them.
The other tricky aspect is the nature of transgenre itself. So far, this seems to come most commonly in the form of mixing prose and poetry, while avoiding any straight narrative, something I've always been uncomfortable doing in my writing. I prefer narrative writing above all other kinds of writing, so eliminating it from my available set of tools leaves me with very little else I know how to do. However, I have a theory that combining non narrative poetry with music may be a more interesting avenue for me in the future. This is the murkiest area, suppose, because while at least for transgender I have an idea of what the goal is, here I sort of do not. As we continue to stumble through the semester, I do hope everything slowly comes together.
Yes, great thoughts here, keep asking the questions. I think although it seems dumb and vague there is no particular way to talk about what a "transgenre" text looks like. But that is the opportunity too, to think about possibilities outside of traditional/proscribed/mainstream expectations and rules about writing (not unlike how socially and culturally we are opening up to better understandings of personal, sexual, social, artistic, intellectual, and etc identities that don't simply fit into expected or traditional categories). Expanding the categories also means making definitions or explanations more difficult which means we also need more conversation, to think and negotiate the possibilities. This seems good and productive even if we lose a sense of clear and definitive "answers" and whatnot.
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