Women's Lives and Women's Literature
Spring 1997
Vassar College
English 101.53
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Instructor: Linn Cary Mehta
139 East 79th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021
Tel: (212) 737-7487 (You may call between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.)
Fax: (212) 472-7220
e-mail: LiMehta@vaxsar.vassar.edu
Office: Sanders 218; Tel: 437-5637
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, at 11:00, at 1:00, between 2:45-3:45,
and by appointment (or after class.)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course serves to introduce female authors of poetry
and fiction from two centuries and three countries: Great Britain, the
U.S. and South Africa. In the nineteenth century, we will consider the
work of the BrontÎs, Emily Dickinson, Constance Fenimore Woolson, Kate
Chopin, and Olive Schreiner. In the twentieth century, we will study
selected poetry of Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, and
Adrienne Rich; and novels chosen from the work of Willa Cather, Zora
Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, and Toni
Morrison.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Thoughtful reading of all assignments and active participation
in classroom discussion (25%). Submission of eight short pieces of writing
(three creative, five critical - 50%) and revision of writing (25%).
Work must be submitted on time.
Week I
Monday, January 20: Introduction
Wednesday, January 22: Virginia Woolf,
A Room of One's Own
Week II
Monday, January 27:
A Room of One's Own
Wednesday, January 29: Emily BrontÎ,
Wuthering Heights
Week III
Monday, February 3:
Wuthering Heights
Wednesday, February 5: Emily BrontÎ, Selected Poems (Copy)
Week IV
Monday, February 10: Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems
Wednesday, February 12: Dickinson, Selected Poems
Week V
Monday, February 17: Constance Fenimore Woolson, Stories
Wednesday, February 19:
Women Artists, Women Exiles
Week VI
Monday, February 24: Kate Chopin,
The Awakening
Wednesday, February 26:
The Awakening
Week VII
Monday, March 3: Olive Schreiner,
Story of an African
Farm
Wednesday, March 5:
Story of an African Farm
Revisions
of earlier writing due. By this date,
you should schedule an individual conference to discuss your writing
and class participation.
MIDTERM BREAK (3/7 - 3/23)
Week VIII
Monday, March 24: Willa Cather (1873-1947),
O Pioneers!
(1913)
Wednesday, March 26:
O Pioneers!
Week IX
Monday, March 31: Zora Neale Hurston
Wednesday, April 2:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Week X
Monday, April 7: 20th c. American Poets: Selections
Wednesday, April 9: Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop
Week XI
Monday, April 14: Moore, Plath, Bishop
Wednesday, April 16: Choice of more poetry or fiction
Week XII: Gordimer or Lessing
Monday, April 21
Wednesday, April 23
Week XIII: Woolf, Rich or Morrison
Monday, April 28
Wednesday, April 30
Week XIV: Final class (All revisions due.)
Monday, May 5
Books on order for "Women's Lives and Women's Literature"
-
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Everyman)
-
Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
-
Constance Fenimore Woolson, Women Artists, Women Exiles (Rutgers)
-
Olive Schreiner, Story of an African Farm (Viking)
-
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (Dover Thrift Editions)
-
Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (Dover Thrift Editions, 1993)
-
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
-
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
First Writing Assignment
(
3
: 2/3) (personal)
Think of an important incident in your own experience which brought
up an issue of your identity in relation to that of another person:
an issue of gender or sexual orientation; race, ethnicity, or cultural
background; poverty, wealth or class. Narrate this experience in a brief
autobiographical piece of 3-4 pages.
Second Writing Assignment
(
4
: 2/10) (critical)
Write about Woolf's essay in relation to Emily BrontÎ. What questions
does A Room of One's Own raise regarding Emily BrontÎ's literary achivement
in Wuthering Heights? (3-4 pp.)
Third writing assignment
(
5
: 2/19) (poetry)
Write an essay which reflects your reading of one or two poems by Emily
Dickinson, or a comparison of a poem by Emily BrontÎ with a poem by
Emily Dickinson. What factors of environment or tradition might have
influenced each poet's use of form and language? (2-3 pages). Revisions
of earlier writing due. By this date, you should schedule an individual
conference to discuss your writing and class participation. (
7
:3/5)
Fourth writing assignment
(
8
: 3/26) (creative)
Create in a short work of fiction or poetry a reflection on a character's
coming to terms with identity in terms of some of the issues that you
may have raised in your writing or that we have discussed in class.
(4-5 pages.)
Fifth writing assignment
(
7 or 10
: 3/5 or
4/6) (critical) What do you see as similarities and differences between
the relation of writer and landscape in Woolson or Chopin, and Schreiner?
Choose a pair of writers (for example, Woolson and Chopin,
Schreiner and Cather, Chopin and Hurston, or Shreiner and Hurston) and
examine the similarities and differences between the relation of writer
and landscape in their writing. How are the different geographical or
political contexts registered in or influential in their writing?
Sixth Writing Assignment
(
11
: 4/16) (poetry)
Examine the gender perspective in a group of poems by Moore, Plath,
or Bishop. (4-5 pages.)
Revision
of all previous written work. (
12
:
4/23.)
Seventh writing assignment
(
13
: 4/30) Write
a critical response to your reading of Adrienne Rich.
Eighth writing assignment
(
Friday
, 5/9)
Write on Woolf, Lessing, Gordimer or Morrison in relation to one of
the authors we read earlier in the term.
Wednesday, 4/30. Select topic for final writing assignment,
and submit a brief proposal in writing (one paragraph.) Second conference
should take place by this date.
The final writing assignment is your choice: it may be
either creative or critical, but should be an outgrowth of all your
writing in the course. The topic should be selected in consultation
with the instructor, and the final paper should be 6-8 pages long.
All revisions
of previous writing due by final
class (5/5).
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