Women in Literature

Catalog description

This course surveys the works of British and American women’s literature from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the present. Students will use a comparative approach to study how women writers used a variety of themes and how they worked within the genres of essay, fiction, poetry, and drama. Topics include historical and social context of women’s lives and writing; themes of gender, race, and sexuality in literature; application of popular culture to examine gender relations; critical theory application to literary analysis of text. Course activities include collaborative discussion to reconsider literary analysis of women’s writing, use of academic and popular culture research in writing assignments, peer review, regular reading response assignments and class discussions, examinations on course readings, film analysis, and an exploration of underrepresented literary voices by women writers of color.