01 MW4 CAC 13300 DEKOVEN MU-211
01-Feminism and Contemporary Literature
We will read some classic texts of second-wave feminism, anthologized in Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings from World War II to the Present, edited by Miriam Schneir. These texts include excerpts from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, along with a variety of manifestos written and widely circulated by various feminist groups. We will then read literary texts from the last thirty years that either anticipated or were influenced by the ideas and concerns of second-wave feminism. These readings will be drawn from among the following: Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera, Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle, The Handmaid’s Tale, Doris Lessing, Memoirs of a Survivor, Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Ariel, Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping, Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, the poetry anthology No More Masks!, the short story anthology Women and Fiction.
Course work will include two papers of 5 pp. each and a final exam. Attendance is required. |
