English 336: Women Writers

Dr. Susan Farrell
26 Glebe Street, #205
Phone: 953-5785
e-mail me at: farrells@cofc.edu

Reading Schedule/Links to Internet Readings

Office Hours (Spring 2006):

Books:

Course Description:

This course examines selected poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by American and British women writers in its historical and social context. Issues we will explore in this course include the relationship between women's writing and the traditional literary canon, the role and position of the female artist, the importance of family and community as well as individual autonomy to female identity, and the ways that racial and class affiliation affect women. The course should increase your appreciation for and enjoyment of the works we study, while developing your skills in critical thinking and in written and oral expression.

Coursework:

Required work for the course includes careful reading of all assigned material and active participation in class discussions. Please come to class prepared with questions and comments about the assigned reading for each day--the success of the course depends on your involvement.

Grading:

Your final grade will be determined according to these percentages:

Letter grades assigned will have the following numerical values:

Attendance:

Regular attendance and participation are requirements to pass the course. You may take 3 absences without being penalized (although I don't recommend it--it's best for you to be in class every meeting). I don't distinguish between excused and unexcused absences, so you should save your 3 absences for when you're really sick or out of town. For each absence over 3 (for any reason--excused or unexcused), I will automatically subtract 3 points from your final course average. You are responsible for all work covered during your absence. Don't come to my office and ask what you missed. Find out from a fellow student.

Late Papers:

Late papers will be penalized five points for each day or fraction of a day they are late. You may not make up late position paper. Your presentation must be given on the scheduled date. If you're not prepared on your scheduled day, you will receive a zero for this assignment.

Make-up exams will not be given except in rare circumstances when the student has documentation to prove a serious accident or illness. If at all possible, you must notify me in advance when a make-up exam is necessary.

Plagiarism:

All work submitted must be your own. You may discuss writing assignments and prepare for tests with your classmates (in fact, I strongly encourage you to do so), but all that you write should be yours. Incorporating others' words or ideas in your essays without proper acknowledgment, or any other form of academic dishonesty, will result in an "F" for the entire course.

Reading Schedule:

You will be responsible for having read at least the portions of the works listed below before coming to class for that day.  Readings with internet links are available through my web page.

 

Week 1:
M 9 Jan
 Course Introduction
 
W 11 Jan.

Early American Poets (internet links):

Bradstreet, "The Prologue," “In Honor of . . . Queen Elizabeth.  . .,” “The Author to Her Book," "To My Dear and Loving Husband," "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment," "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House"

Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," "To the Right Honorable. . . “
Week 2:
M 16 Jan.

No Class--MLK Day
W 18 Jan.

Early British Poets (internet links):

Behn, "The Willing Mistress," "Love Armed," "The Disappointment," "To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me"

Finch, "The Introduction," "The Answer"

Killigrew, "Upon the Saying that My Verses Were Made by Another."

E-Mail Discussion:  Comment on Aphra Behn's "love" poetry.  What types of metaphors does she use to describe love?  What do you think her view of romantic love is like?  Does she believe in it or not?  Did anything in her poetry surprise you or change your preconceptions of what women in 17th century England were like?

OR: Both Anne Finch and Anne Killigrew use their poetry to comment on the role of the woman literary artist.  How does each characterize women who write?  Do these two poets seem apologetic for their vocation or do they defend it?
Week 3:
M 23 Jan.
 Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Intro., pp. 6-10; Chapter II, pp. 18-36; Chapter XIII, Section 2, pp. 190-193).
E-Mail Discussion:  In the excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft comments on the education of women, the relationship between the sexes, and her views of what a mature marriage should consist of.   Very briefly summarize Wollstonecraft's ideas, then comment on whether or not you think any of her observations are still relevant or valuable to women today.  How far have we come since 1792, when this treatise was first published?
W 25 Jan.
 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Author's Introduction-Chapter 6, pp. 1-46)
Week 4:
M 30 Jan.

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein  (Chapters 7-21)

Report:  Ellen Moers, "Female Gothic:  The Monster's Mother."
W  1 Feb
 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Chapters 22-end)

Report:  Anne K. Mellor:  "Possessing Nature:  The Female in Frankenstein.
E-Mail Discussion:  Does Shelley want us to believe that Victor is right or wrong to destroy his female creation?  Remember--you're not simply stating whether or not YOU believe Victor acts correctly (although you're certainly entitled to your opinion), but I'd like you to consider what conclusion about Victor's behavior SHELLEY wants us to come to.  You should base your response to this question on textual evidence from the novel.
Week 5:
M 6Feb.
 Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (through Chapter 15)
W 8Feb.

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (through Chapter 28)

Report:  Adrienne Rich, "Jane Eyre:  The Temptations of a Motherless Woman."
Week 6:
M 13 Feb.

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (finish the novel)

Report:  Sandra M. Gilbert, "A Dialogue of Self and Soul:  Plain Jane's Progress."
E-Mail Discussion:  Now that you've finished Jane Eyre, comment on its ending, the very last chapter, titled "The Conclusion."  Were you satisfied with the way the book ended?  Did this ending seem appropriate based on everything we find out about Jane through the course of the novel?  Or did it seem to you an unsatisfactory ending? (Was it, for instance, unrealistic? Overly optimistic about the possibilities of romantic love?  Overly pessimistic about these same possibilities?)  Can you imagine some other possible endings and comment on why or why not such alternatives would have worked?
W 15 Feb.

Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" (in Great Short Stories by American Women)

Report:  Sharon M. Harris, "Rebecca Harding Davis:  From Romanticism to Realism."
E-Mail Discussion:  What do you think the Korl woman represents?  Possibly consider the following questions:  Who made the woman and why?  How is she posed?  Why is it important that she is a statue?  What is the meaning of art in the world that Davis depicts?  What is the significance of Korl? Why does the statue represent a woman?  Does the meaning of the Korl woman change over the course of the story?
Week 7:
M 20 Feb.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (through Chapter 13)
W 22 Feb.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (through Chapter 28)

Report:  James Baldwin, "Everybody's Protest Novel."
Week 8:
M 27 Feb.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (finish the novel)

Report:  Gillian Brown:  "Getting in the Kitchen with Dinah:  Domestic Politics in Uncle Tom's Cabin."

E-Mail Discussion:  In his essay, "Everybody's Protest Novel," James Baldwin writes that,

 

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with Little Women.  Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.

 

Jane Smiley, however, in her recent article about Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, argues that Uncle Tom's Cabin is powerful because it marries "brilliant analysis" to "great wisdom of feeling," and that it presents "the hard-nosed, unsentimental dialogue about race that we should have been having since before the Civil War."  Smiley goes even further, arguing that American literature might have done better to pay more attention to the lessons taught by Stowe's novel than those taught in Huckleberry Finn.

W 1 Mar.
 Mid-Term Exam
Week 9:
M 6 Mar
 Spring Break
W 8 Mar.
 Spring Break
Week 10:
M 13 Mar.

Emily Dickinson, 214:  "I taste a liquor never brewed--,"  249:  "Wild Nights--Wild Nights!," 303:  "The Soul selects her own Society," 465:  "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--," 712:  "Because I could not stop for Death--,"  (internet links)

Report:  Stanley Orr, "Dickinson's 'I taste a liquor never brewed--.'"

Report:  James L. Dean, "Dickinson's 'Wild Nights.'"

W 15 Mar.
 Emily Dickinson, 448:  "This was a Poet--It is That--,"  613: They shut me up in Prose--," 632:  "The Brain is Wider than the Sky,"  657:  "I dwell in Possibility--,"709: "Publication--is the Auction," 1052:  "I never saw a Moor--," 1072: "Title divine--is mine!" 1129:  "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--" (internet links)
E-Mail Discussion:  Choose one of Dickinson's poems that we HAVEN'T discussed in class yet and very briefly explicate it.  Begin by asserting what you believe the poem is saying on a large, thematic level.  Then briefly go through the poem, line-by-line if necessary, explaining how you come to this conclusion about the poem's meaning.
Week 11:
M 20 Mar.
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (in Great Short Stories by American Women)

Report:  Conrad Shumaker, "'Too Terribly Good to Be Printed':  Charlotte Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'"

E-Mail Discussion:  Who is the woman that the narrator sees in the wallpaper?  You may approach this question however you want.  You might want to explain what the narrator sees on a literal level, if you think the question can be explained this way.  Or you might want to discuss the symbolic ramifications of the woman in the wallpaper.  You might address both the literal and symbolic levels.  Or you might want to consider whether the identity of the woman in the wallpaper changes or remains the same throughout the story, or what happens to the wallpaper woman at the end.
W 22 Mar.
 Kate Chopin, The Awakening (through Chapter 16)
Week 12:
M 27 Mar.

Kate Chopin, The Awakening (finish the novella)

Report:  Ruth Sullivan and Stewart Smith, "Narrative Stance in Kate Chopin's The Awakening."

Report:  Cynthia Griffin Wolff, "Thanatos and Eros:  Kate Chopin's The Awakening."
E-Mail Discussion:  Readers and critics have consistently debated how we're supposed to view Edna Pontellier.  Discuss your view of Edna, paying particular attention to how the novel ends.  Is Edna a weak character who retreats into romantic fantasy?  Or is she a character who truly "awakens" to some kind of self-fulfillment, self-knowledge by the end?  Is she both?  Neither? 
W 29 Mar.
 Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (Chapters 1-3)
Week 13:
M 3 April

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own  (Chapters 4-6)

Report:  Margaret J. M. Ezell, "The Myth of Judith Shakespeare:  Creating the Canon of Women's Literature."

E-Mail Discussion:  What material conditions does Woolf believe are necessary for the production of great art?  Do you agree with her about these conditions?  Is it true that "intellectual freedom depends  upon material things" (108)?  Explain why you agree or disagree with Woolf on this point.

OR: Does Woolf believe that the essential natures of men and women are the same or different?  How does this view compare to that of Wollstonecraft?  Do you agree with Woolf or not?  Do you think men and women are fundamentally the same or fundamentally different?
W 5 April
 Virginia Woolf video
Week 14:
M 10 April
 Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (through Chapter 9)
W 12 April

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (finish the novel)

Report:  Curena N. Pondrom, "The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God."

Report:  Thomas Cassidy, "Janie's Rage:  The Dog and the Storm in Their Eyes Were Watching God."

 
E-Mail Discussion:  How do you believe Hurston wants us to feel about the relationship between Tea Cake and Janie?  Are we supposed to like Tea Cake or dislike him?  Are we to view this relationship as a loving, satisfactory romance for Janie?  Or does Hurston not want us to see it this way?  Base your response on textual evidence from the novel itself.
Week 15:
M 17 April
 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior ("No Name Woman" & "White Tigers")
W 19 April
 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior ("Shaman" & "At the Western Palace")

Report:  Paul Outka, "Publish or Perish: Food, Hunger, and Self-Construction in Maxine Hong Kingston'sThe Woman Warrior"
Week 16:
M 24 April 

Last Day of Class

Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior ("Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe")
E-Mail Discussion:  Why do you think the final story about Ts'ai Yen is included in the book? What is Kingston getting at here? Is translation between cultures, between generations, finally possible or not?
W 26 April
 Due:  Final Research Papers (in my office by 5:00)
Final Exam:  Wednesday, May 3, 12-3 p.m.

  

Go To:
Susan Farrell's home page
Department of English home page
College of Charleston home page