English: Women in Literature

Survey of women's literary tradition in English. Focuses on the ways women have written, read, written about, and been represented in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. Cross-listed with: GSWS 1630.

Open to degree and PACE students

In this course, we study women as writers and texts created by (mainly) women. This involves reading about women authors and reading fiction/non-fiction that addresses women’s situation in literature and in different societal, cultural, historical, and geographic contexts. We will discuss and investigate ways in which selected authors illustrate women’s struggle for autonomy as individuals, as artists, as political beings, as spiritual beings, as sexual beings, as wives, and as mothers. Our perspective will be shaped by (but not limited to) theoretical viewpoints expressed by the authors that we study. We will focus on the 20th century but will also cover pivotal texts from earlier time-periods.

In this course, we draw heavily on our own responses to the texts. How do these texts concern us? In what way can we relate these works to our own lives and experiences? Questions like these and many others will assume a central place in our class-discussions. In addition, we will focus on the historical circumstances of the texts we read, and the lives and experiences of the authors. This is a discussion-based course and final grades will reflect your level of enthusiasm, participation, and attendance.