This course will focus on feminist issues in British women writers from the Victorian period to the present. We will examine the changing status of women, the static status of women, and the specific cultural concerns of British women. We’ll situate the poems, short stories, and novels we read in their historical and cultural context.
This course is designed to achieve the following objectives: 1) to illustrate how literature and popular cultural productions are influenced by history and culture, and, conversely how literary and cultural output may influence historical events and cultural movements; 2) to introduce critical theory or expand students’ existing knowledge of it with a focus on feminism and cultural studies.
Texts
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Elizabeth Bowen, Selected stories from The Demon Lover and Other Stories
Monica Ali, Brick Lane
Zadie Smith, selected stories
Prerequisites: a “C” or better in English 1102 and good written usage of standard American English.
Course Requirements
The first requirement for succeeding in this course is to read or view all the material carefully and thoughtfully. Other course assignments will be weighted as follows:
Blog Responses 50%
Students will be required to keep a blog and post on it every day of our trip. These posts will include ideas about the literature’s aesthetics, the literature’s relationship to historical and cultural events, research findings, material learned from excursions, etc. The blogs are intended to serve as an interactive and collaborative learning tool. Students will use them to share with each other their ideas and findings in the expectation that their peers will learn from their work. Usually students will generate these responses based on their readings and experiences in London. Occasionally, Ms. Harrison or I will provide prompts for responses.
Final Project 50%
Based on your research and experience as reflected in your blogs, your will produce an 8-10 pp. research paper.
Grading Scale
A+ = 100-98
A=97-95
A- = 94-90
B+ = 89-87
B = 86-84
B- = 83-80
C+ = 79-77
C=76-74
C- = 73-70
Policies
Attendance: Regular attendance to class meetings and participation in excursions are expected and necessary for good performance in the class.
Schedule changes: Occasionally, the reading schedule will change depending on the needs of the class and time constraints. Changes will be announced either electronically or in our class meetings. You are responsible for making yourself aware of these changes.
Portfolio Requirement for English Majors: All English majors must submit, as part of their graduation requirements, individual portfolios of their work as English majors. Students should collect several assignments each term to include in the portfolio. The main office of the Department of English can supply specific requirements for individual concentrations. Instructors and advisors can counsel students about portfolio inclusions.
Academic Honesty: Students are expected to abide by the University’s policy on academic honesty, which is summarized on pages 54-57 in the current undergraduate catalog. Any plagiarized or otherwise academically dishonest work will receive a grade of zero, with no chance for revision. The instructors will assign a failing grade for the course to any student who submits academically dishonest work.