American Women Writers

Catalog description

Introduction to literature written by women, with focus on historical and cultural context of women’s lives. For example: Prof. S. Moynihan, America and American-ness in Women’s Literature This course will provide an introduction to the study of literature by women and to the significance of gender in literary analysis. In our readings, we will consider themes that often resurface in women’s literature, such as body image, women’s work and constructions of domesticity, reproduction and motherhood, women’s culture, and issues of agency and voice. Is there a particular aesthetic associated with femininity? How does gender intersect with other forms of difference (racial, sexual, class-based)? Do the differences among women allow for connection or solidarity, both in terms of feminist politics and in terms of literary critique? How have women’s social, political, and economic positions affected literary production? How has women’s literature enacted social and political critique? In what ways has women’s literature re-envisioned history? How have women drawn upon and yet revised cultural traditions? What is the relationship between women’s literature and the literary canon? Focus will be on American women’s literature, particularly texts that engage ideas of American-ness. For example: H. Recny, A Literature of One’s Own How does women’s writing distinguish itself from its male counterparts? Are there common themes that appear in writing by women? Can they be universal? How do women represent (other) women? How have women writers and the characters that they represent grappled with the exclusions and inequalities among women? How are you connected to women in the United Kingdom, Antigua, India, and Zimbabwe? This course focuses on how gender influences the writing of a particular time and place. Using canonical and non-canonical texts, we will explore how non-western women writers from the colonies and newly independent nations represent women and identities that do not fit traditional categories of gender, race, and nation. We will engage in debates about the literary canon, language ownership, the usefulness of gender as basis for a literary genre and community, and the function of writing as part of a global exchange.