Women in Literature, LIT 206, is offered every Spring semester.
This course examines the roles assigned to women in society as reflected
in poetry, short stories, novels and autobiographical writings, by women
as well as literature written about women. The course reflects the
views of women held in different countries and at different times in the
recent past.
Dr. P. Kalata 894-9311. x 7621
Briggs Road, room 109
AC 314: Office hours posted on office door and given on first day of class.
Women in Literature
Materials: African Women's Writing, Charlotte H. Bruner, ed.
Writing a Woman's Life by Carolyn G. Heilbrun
Writing Women's Lives, Susan Cahill, ed.
One of the following novels: Eva Lunda by Isabel Allende
House on Mango Street by Sandra Cristino
Course
Requirements:
1. Students will be expected to read assignments prior to class, take notes, and come prepared to participate in class discussion.
2. Students will be asked to keep a journal: In a notebook, write notes as well as your responses to the assigned readings. This will be collected during the semester and will be part of the grade. ( 30 pts. total) In the journal, you should include some of the following information: Brief plot summary or the incident or lines that strike you as the core of the piece of writing. Major characters and their relationships to each other and to the plot. Statement of theme. Major symbols in the work and what they stand for. Brief note on author. Your reaction to some aspect of the materials that surprised you, pleased you, dismayed you. Avoid vague words such as " liked" "boring" or "Interesting.
3. There will be a midterm and a final. ( 25 pts each)
4. There will be two papers in the course. One will be on a writer of your own choice, looking at the major themes of this author's writing, or the author as a reflection of her times, either in terms of social mores or in terms of issues of concern. (25 pts. )
The second paper will be written about one of the assigned novels and authors for the course ( 25 pts.). For example, what universal themes are present in this work? What focus unique to women or to women of a particular group and time does it reveal.?
5. There will be unannounced quizzes
during the semester ( a total of 20 pts.)
Course Outline: Week 1: Introduction to Women in Literature. For Friday, in your journal, write insights you find from the following two assignments: 1) Interview a parent, friend, younger person, older person or stranger about the way in which gender has affected their lives and the ways in which race, class and the perceptions of others might have affected their view. What decisions did they make about their life's work? What factors affected their decisions? What would the older person change if they could? What problems do young people see?
2) Watch television with the sound off. Surf the channels. Make notes about what television tells us about men and women. What roles are women given, what power do they have, where is their presence most evident, where is it absent. What images of women are most dominant?
Read the poems distributed in class and write a journal entry on your response to one of the poems.
Week 2: Be prepared to begin the discussion of Writing a Woman's Life,
Week 3: We will begin reading and discussing the stories in African Women's Writing. As you read the various selections, what do the stories have in common, what characters can you identify with or feel some kinship with, what emotions are strongest in each of the stories and how do they connect to the poems from the first week. How does the individual view of woman's place in a story contrast with the other stories? What would account for this difference. What view of women is presented here ? What seems true and what not true?
Week 4: African Women
Week 5: African Women
Week 6: Chinese Women Poets, handout
Week 7: Midterm
Week 8: Writing Women's Lives
Week 9: Writing " "
Week 10: Paper on selected author is due. Discussions of three novels.
Week 11: Writing Women's Lives
Week 12: Writing " "
Week 13: Writing
" "
Week 14: Second paper due. Tying up
loose ends
Week 15: Finals, exact date to be announced.
Writers to Consider for papers
Novels and Short Stories
Atwood, Margaret: Alias Grace, Cats Eyes, The Robber Bride.
Campbell, Bebe Moore: Brothers and Sisters, Your Blues Aren't Like Mine
Chopin, Kate: The Awaking
Dillard, Anne: An American Childhood
Escandon, Maria Anparo: Esperanza's Box of Saints
Esquirell, Laura: Like Water for Chocolate
L'Engle, Madeleine: Walking on Water
Munro, Alice: Open Secrets
Piercy, Marge: City of Darkness, City of Light; Woman on the Edge of Time
Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Kitchen God's Wife
Woolf, Virginia: A Room of One's Own, Mrs. Dalloway
Books of Poetry
Atwood, Margaret: Selected Poems 11: Poems Selected and New 1976-1986
Clifton, Lucille: Good Woman: poems and a memoir 1969-1980
Giovanni, Nikki: Sacred Cows-and
Other Edibles
Harjo, Joy: The Woman Who fell From The Sky
Hillman, Brenda: Bright Existence
Kelly, Brigit Pegeen: Song
Levin, Harriet: The Christmas Show
Rich, Adrienne: Collected Early Poems 1950-1970
Criticism
Gates, Henry Louis Jr.: Reading Black, Reading Feminist
Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar: The Madwoman in the Attic
Rich, Adrienne: What is Found There, notebooks on Poetry and Politics
Warhol, Robyn and Diane Price Herndl,
eds.: Feminisms, an anthology of literary theory and criticism
Question? Comments?
Contact pkalata@bcc.edu