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Wright State University

ENG 3430: Women and Literature

Spring 2018

UPDATED MARCH 23, 2018

11:00-12:20 Tuesdays and Thursdays

301 Millett Hall

Professor: Dr. Kelli Zaytoun

Office: 485 Millett Hall

Office Hours: 12:30-2 PM T & TH; and by appointment

Phone: 775-4525

E-mail: [email protected]

Course Description:

This course introduces students to representative works by and about women of diverse backgrounds across major literary periods, with a primary focus on the 20th century, when feminist criticism began to flourish. Students will critically examine traditions in women’s writing, pervasive representations of women in literature, and the mutually constitutive relationship between language, literature, and identity. Assigned readings will be in American, British, and Anglophone literatures and cover a multicultural range of works by women of different social backgrounds. For the most part, the course is organized by theme and not by historical period, so each week you will likely be reading writing from a range of historical moments. By the end of this course, students should be able to demonstrate through participation, exams, and written work, achievement of the following objectives:

· Familiarity with the diversity of women’s contributions to literature across various times and places and the diverse range of women’s representation within literary practices;

· Understanding of cultural, historical, and geographic differences within and among groups of women and how these differences influenced the lives of women writers, the conditions in which they lived and wrote, and the reception their work received;

· Ability to analyze the feminist politics and implications of women’s writing and the ways in which women writers have either resisted or reinforced traditional roles and identities through their explorations of language, voice, and genre;

· Demonstrate knowledge of the broader social, material, cultural, and historical contexts influencing representations of women in literature, the production of literature by and about women, and the major critical thematic concerns in women’s writing.

Required Texts and Other Materials:

DeShazer, Mary K., (ed). The Longman Anthology of Women’s Literature. New York: Longman,

2001. Abbreviated LWL in your class schedule.

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand (1928). NY: Dover, 2006.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale (1986). NY: Anchor Books, 1998.

Additional materials will be posted in Pilot, including selections from The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. 3rd ed., Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader, and Women’s Worlds: The McGraw-Hill Anthology of Women’s Writing.

Course Evaluation: grades are based on the following points (1,000 total):

Six Pop Quizzes 300 (50 each)

Midterm Exam 200

Final Exam 300

Participation 200

♀ Quizzes (in or out-of-class writing assignments):

Six quizzes worth 50 points each will be conducted at various, unannounced times throughout the semester. The quizzes are meant to motivate you to keep up with your close reading of assignments and to test the analytical skills you are expected to acquire throughout the semester. In lieu of a quiz, I might give you a brief writing assignment to complete before an upcoming class period. Quizzes will include multiple choice questions and/ or short answers to, usually, fewer than 10 questions.

30% of grade

♀ Midterm Exam

The midterm will cover material from Weeks 1- 6 and will be given in class on Tuesday, February 20th. You will have the full class period to complete the exam. Questions will assess your knowledge and understanding of the assigned readings as well as historical, social, cultural, and critical contexts. The exam will consist of identifications, multiple-choice and short answer questions. There will be no make-up exams.

20% of grade

♀ Second Half Exam

The last exam will cover material from Weeks 7 – 15 and be given during exam week on its scheduled day and time, Thursday, April 19th, at classtime. Questions will assess your knowledge and understanding of the assigned readings as well as historical, social, cultural, and critical contexts. The exam will consist of identifications and multiple-choice questions and two short essay questions on the works of Margaret Atwood. There will be no make-up exams.

30% of grade

♀ Participation

Regular attendance and informed participation is important in this course. The course format will be a mix of lecture (25%) and discussion (75%). You are expected to attend class (on time) regularly, and to prepare comments and written assignments to be announced as the semester progresses for active participation in class discussions. You will be expected to ask questions about and comment on the readings to help facilitate discussion on the days the readings are due. Some of the questions for quizzes will be based on information from lectures and discussions in class in addition to your text readings (another important reason to be in class!).

Your active participation is worth a lot - 20% of your grade. Each day you are absent will cost you one percentage point, so will being unprepared for class. Also, you can lose overall points for coming to class late (more than 20 minutes), leaving before the end of class, having poor participation (rarely contributing to discussions or dominating discussions), or not following class ground rules. Perfect attendance and active participation in class can help boost borderline grades.

20% of grade

The following standard grading scale will be used to calculate grades: 100-90=A; 89-80=B; 79-70=C; 69-60=D; and 59-0=F.

Grade Evaluation Criteria for Written Answers

A = Demonstrates advanced analytical and critical thinking skills and outstanding knowledge of the readings and other course content. Writing is clear, concise, easy to follow, and free of basic errors. Ideas are original and depth of analysis is excellent. Illustrations and examples are concrete, appropriate, and vivid.

B = Demonstrates solid analytical and critical thinking skills and familiarity with readings and other course content. Writing is coherent, concise, easy to follow, and nearly free of basic errors. Interesting illustrations and examples.

C = Demonstrates basic understanding of the readings and other course content and can provide a good summary of material but shows lack of development and support for issues raised.

D = Demonstrates some understanding of readings and other course content. Shows lack of, or simplistic analysis. Writing lacks coherence. Ideas are vague or not supported.

F = Demonstrates serious lack of understanding of readings and other course content. Incoherent or serious lack of articulation and analysis.

Academic honesty

All work submitted for credit must be your own; outside sources must be properly acknowledged. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and penalties for academic dishonesty will be severe. Plagiarism, that is using other people’s ideas and/or words without crediting them, is intellectual theft. This obviously includes cutting and pasting or copying, but also paraphrasing others’ words or using their ideas without citing them. To avoid plagiarizing, you must master proper methods of quoting and paraphrasing in ways that separate your ideas from theirs as well as the use of source notes. For further guidance regarding academic integrity, see

http://www.wright.edu/students/judicial/integrity.html

and

http://www.wright.edu/academics/writingctr/resources/plagiarism.html

Disability Services: If you require course accommodations due to a disability, you are encouraged to inform me so arrangements can be made early in the quarter. For more information about support services offered by Disability Services (E186 Student Union), call 775-5680; TTY: 775-5844. 

Or visit their Web page: http://www.wright.edu/students/dis_services/

Class Ground Rules

It is critical that each class member works to help create a classroom environment that is comfortable, positive, and rewarding for everyone. The following rules are meant to facilitate that optimal learning environment:

· Students will complete all reading and other assignments prior to the class session for which they are assigned.

· During lectures and classroom discussions, only one person will be permitted to speak at a time. Side conversations will not be tolerated.

· Anyone sleeping during class or talking during lectures or while someone is contributing to the all-class discussion will be asked to leave.

· All cell phones will be turned off before class begins, unless you are the sole care provider for a dependent person; in that case, silence the phone and leave the classroom before speaking. No text messaging permitted during class.

· Laptops, iPads, and other types of computers are to be used only for taking notes and for accessing materials as instructed during class by the professor.

· To participate in the discussion, raise your hand. Preference is given to those who have not yet contributed to the discussion; in other words, if you have already spoken, you may be overlooked while someone else who hasn’t spoken yet is called on to speak. This rule is to help prevent any one or few persons from dominating discussions.

· I encourage the expression of thoughtful, well-considered views. This includes sharing personal experiences and opinions; however, students must strive for rigor, connecting these experiences to the ideas studied in the class.

· Students must listen carefully to each other and treat others with respect. This means, for example, not expressing judgment of people, even if you disagree with their views, and not asking people to speak on behalf of their identity groups. Learning about topics like systems of oppression and privilege, which will come up in this class, can invoke strong emotions and result in personal transformation; it is also important to examine how we may have suffered, or unfairly benefited from injustice. However, blaming ourselves or other individuals for where we fit into such systems of oppression (as the oppressed or privileged or both) is unproductive. And although labeling some of our multiple identities (woman, man, black, white, lesbian, straight, etc.) can be useful in helping to explain how we are situated in, and have experienced the world, it can also oversimplify our situations, divide us, and keep us from understanding our interconnectedness as human beings. Therefore, it will be important for us to avoid the “us and them” approach that labeling can create.

**Lastly, please check your WSU email regularly!

Schedule of class sessions, readings, and assignments:

Readings and assignments are listed on the day they are due, so be sure to read ahead in the syllabus. Reading assignments/page numbers listed in the schedule include the essay/story/novel only. You are encouraged to read the author’s biographical information preceding the assignment as well, but are not required to do so. I will be introducing and expanding on the biographical information in my opening lectures, but not for every author.

Week 1: Intro to Course and Overview of Historical Periods

T Jan. 9 No readings due

TH Jan. 11 Read from LWL:

Section I Introduction (1-14)

Week 2: Women Writers on Writing and Access

T Jan. 16 Read: In Pilot:

Wollstonecraft “From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (60-64 – from chpts. 2, 7, & 13)

Fern “Male Criticism on Ladies’ Books” and “Fresh Leaves” (93-95)

Gilman “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-paper” (119)

Read in LWL:

Eliot “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” (248-263)

TH Jan. 18 Read in LWL and Pilot:

Woolf, from “A Room of One’s Own” (Chapter 3: p. 35-40 through line 7 in LWL, and “Professions for Women” posted in Pilot)

Walker “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” (324-331 in LWL)

Week 3: Women Writers on Writing, cont.

T Jan. 23 Read in Pilot:

Plath “Context” (168-169)

Atwood from “Paradoxes and Dilemmas: The Woman as Writer” (220-222)

Lorde “Poetry is not a Luxury” and “The Transformation of Silence into Action”

(223-228)

Rich “When We Dead Awaken” (982-994)

Read in LWL:

Hooks “Talking Back” (73-76)

T Jan. 25 Read in Pilot:

Anzaldúa “Tlilli, Tlapallli/The Path of the Red and Black Ink” (1255-1262)

Lorde from Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1076-1078)

Read in LWL:

Rich “Diving into the Wreck” (1106-1108)

Week 4: Language, Silence, and Voice

T Jan. 30 Read in LWL:

Shelley “Introduction to Frankenstein” (233-236)

Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” (264-274)

TH Feb. 1 Read in LWL:

Kingston “No Name Woman” (308-315)

Yamamoto “Seventeen Syllables” (299-307)

Week 5: Focus on New Woman Writers/Modernism

T Feb. 6 Read in LWL:

Wharton “A Journey” (275-282)

Glaspell “Trifles” (981-990)

TH Feb. 8 Read in LWL:

Hurston “from Dust Tracks on a Road” (289-291)

Mansfield, “The Doll’s House” (997-1002)

Week 6: Focus on the Modern Novel: Nella Larsen’s Quicksand

T Feb. 13 Read Quicksand to page 66

TH Feb. 15 Read Quicksand to page 125

Week 7: Midterm

T Feb. 20 Midterm Exam

TH Feb. 22 Introduction to second half of course

Week 8: Spring Break

Week 9: Resistance and Transformation

T March 6 Read in LWL:

Truth “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1146-1147)

Angelou “Still I Rise” (1223-1224)

Morrison “Recitatif” (1225-1237)

TH March 8 Read in LWL:

Erdrich “Fleur” (1290-1298)

Read in Pilot:

Viramontes “The Moths”

Week 10: Writing Bodies

T March 13 Read in LWL:

Jacobs “from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (507-513)

Lorde “Uses of the Erotic” (536-540)

TH March 15 Read in LWL:

Cixous “Laugh of the Medusa” (391-406)

Week 11: Writing Bodies, cont.

T March 20 Read in Pilot:

Bordo from Unbearable Weight (745-756)

Boland “In His Own Image” and “Anorexic” (1289-1291)

Atwood “Rape Fantasies” (1210-1217)

TH March 22 TBA

Week 12: Rethinking the Maternal – Intersections of Race, Culture, and Motherhood

T March 27 Read in LWL:

Collins “Shifting the Center” (638-654)

Read in Pilot:

Walker “Everyday Use”

TH March 29 Read in Pilot:

Ozik “The Shawl” (932-935)

Erdrich “The Shawl” (1409-1413)

Week 13: Focus on the Contemporary Novel: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

T April 3 Introduction to Margaret Atwood

Read in Pilot:

Read The Handmaid’s Tale up to page 147

(“Marrying the Hangman” in Pilot is optional; I might make reference to it in my lecture)

TH April 5 Special Guest: Dr. Hope Jennings

Read the second half of The Handmaid’s Tale (151-311)

Atwood: Excerpt from “Alias Grace” in Pilot

Week 14: Focus on Identity and Difference/Third Wave

T April 10 Read in LWL:

Cliff “If I Could Write this with Fire” (917-928)

Mairs “Reading Houses, Writing Lives” (406-416)

TH April 12 Read in LWL:

Moore “The Fish” (991-992)

Carter “Wolf Alice” (1032-1037)

Anzaldúa “Speaking in Tongues” (316-323)

Week 15: Review and Last Exam

T April 17 Review for last exam

TH April 19 Exam over 2nd half of course

NO MEETING DURING FINALS WEEK

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