English 57: Women and Literature
Office: L 566
Phone/voicemail: 510-464-3051; 415-239-3388
E-mail: Lois@d-street.com
Office hours: M W F 10-11 a.m.
Class Schedule
Objective:
To read British and American women's novels, stories, poetry, and
memoirs/letters, from 14th to 20th centuries and to explore the
issues women writers convey.
Books:
| •Jane Austen |
EMMA |
| •Charlotte Bronte |
JANE EYRE |
| •Virginia Woolf |
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE |
| •Toni Morrison |
SULA |
| •Doris Lessing |
THE SUMMER BEFORE THE DARK |
| •Fae Myenne Ng |
BONE |
| •Jessica Hagedorn |
DOGEATERS |
| •ed. S. Cahill |
WOMEN AND FICTION |
•plus handouts of selected 14th - 20th century women's
poetry, prose, letters, diaries |
Requirements:
- Weekly Reading and Journal Keeping
- Individual and PeerGroup Participation, including Writing
- 3 absences only; more = drop
- 3 latenesses = 1 absence
- 2 original papers, based on close-reading and analysis as well
as personal understanding of the issues.
- Homework due ondate assigned --no late papers.
- Videos and films and poetry readings, liveand audio, to be
assigned and suggested throughout the semester.
Grades:
Based on quality of reading, writing, class discussion as well
as completion of all assignments.
| 35% |
Content |
| 35% |
Form |
| 20% |
Grammar & Usage |
| 5% |
Originality &Execution. |
Assignments:
Reading and Writing Assignments will be made weekly, in -class;
Quizzes will be announced. The following is a list, with dates,
of class topics + dates papers, midterm and finals will be due.
Please read it carefully and prepare accordingly. Pop quizzes may
occur.
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Classes:
| #1 |
(8/21) |
Introductions: the Writers, the Issues, Ourselves |
| #2 |
(8/23) |
Kate Chopin, Tillie Olsen, Alice Walker and the
interlockingworlds of Women's Writing |
| #3 |
(8/28) |
Early Writing, Sacred and Secular: Julian of Norwich,
Kempe, Wroth; Behn |
| #4 |
(8/30) |
17th & 18th century poets: The Annes- Killigrew,
Finch, Bradstreet |
| #5 |
(9/4) |
18th century letters & poems: Montagu, Burney;
Wheatley |
| #6 |
9/6) |
18th /19th c. Movers & Changers: M.Wollstonecraft,
Mary Shelley, D.Wordsworth, S.Truth |
| #7 |
(9/11) |
The First Great 19th century Novelist: Jane Austen |
| #8 |
(9/13) |
Jane Austen |
| #9 |
(9/18) |
Jane Austen - Jewish Holiday |
| #10 |
(9/20) |
19th c. Women Poets Start to Sing: E.Barrett.Browning,
Emily.Bronte, Christina.Rossetti |
| #11 |
(9/25) |
19th c. Women & Slavery: Harriet Jacobs; Harriet
Beecher Stowe |
| |
|
* 1st paper due |
| #12 |
(9/27) |
19th c. Women's Novels Emerge: George Eliot, Emily
Bronte; Louisa May Alcott |
| #13 |
10/2) |
Charlotte Bronte |
| #14 |
(10/4) |
Charlotte Bronte |
| #15 |
(10/9) |
Charlotte Bronte |
| #16 |
(10/11) |
The Original Song of America's Great 19th c. Poet:
Emily Dickinson |
| #17 |
(10/16) |
End of Century Gilt and Gifts: Charlotte Perkins
Gilman; EdithWharton |
| #18 |
(10/18) |
MIDTERM |
| #19 |
(10/23) |
Where Are We When The Century Turns: Willa Cather
& Zora Neale Hurston |
| #20 |
(10/25) |
Personal & Public: 20th c. Women Emerge: Gertrude
Stein; Radclyffe Hall |
| #21 |
(10/30) |
Virginia Woolf |
| #22 |
(11/1) |
Virginia Woolf |
| #23 |
(11/6) |
Virginia Woolf |
| #24 |
(11/8) |
Katherine Mansfield and the Art of
the Short Story ;
*2nd Paper Due |
| #25 |
(11/13) |
Women Running With Their Lives: Mid-century. Prose:
Kingston, Atwood, Oates, Olsen, Paley |
| #26 |
(11/15) |
Doris Lessing |
| #27 |
(11/20) |
Doris Lessing |
| #28 |
(11/27) |
Toni Morrison |
| #29 |
(11/29) |
Toni Morrison |
| #30 |
(12/4) |
20th c. Women Poets Say Even More: Sexton, Plath;
Angelou, Lorde |
| #31 |
(12/6) |
Where Are We As the Century Ends: Many Cultures,
Many Voices: Cisneros, Kincaid |
| #32 |
(12/11) |
Jessica Hagedorn |
| #33 |
(12/13) |
Fae Myenne Ng |
| #34 |
(12/20) |
FINAL EXAM |
Dear Student,
Thank you for taking this class. It will be an intense and lively
journey, I am sure. I trust you are willing and eager to read and
write and discuss the important issues these women writers raise.
I am very inspired by their work; I hope you will be too. Please
give the work all your effort. Give yourself time to read and savor
each writer. Don't rush. It will be well worth your energy and contemplation;
I guarantee it. I look forward to getting to know you and hearing
from you.
Sincerely,
Lois Silverstein
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