OSL Workshop on Queer Poetry

Dates: 2 and 11 June 2025 (13:00-16:00)
Venue: University of Amsterdam, Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Amsterdam – OMHP – C 1.23
Organizer: Dr Gandolfo Cascio (Utrecht University)
Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access
Credits: 1EC. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities

Registration opens on April 2nd, 9am VIA THIS LINK

Queer poetry deals with issues of sexual and gender identity. These experiences are often linked to forms of desire and love that somehow clash with certain traditional norms and expectations. Thus, besides being an intimate and personal event, they can also have a strong social impact on issues of power, resistance and emancipation. In this sense, the queer poet can be seen as an outsider whose narrative – albeit with different dynamics and outcomes – can be assimilated to those of other minority communities. In this workshop, after a theoretical and methodological introduction, some exemplary voices from various historical periods and geographical areas will be presented: from Sappho to Catullus, from Abū Nuwās to Hafez, from Michelangelo to Shakespeare, from Lorca to Cavafy. We will then work on specific case studies – Frank O’hara, Morrissey and Patrizia Cavalli – to examine through close readings their poetics and reception.