During the semester, the student will:

	survey women writers (in translation) from the ancient world to the twentieth century;
	acquire an understanding of these writers in historical and cultural perspective;
	gain an appreciation for a variety of literary forms by women, including poetry, prose, and drama;
	understand gender as one component of constructed identities along with race/ethnicity and social class;
	develop skills in reading texts critically and comprehending them within their cultural and historical contexts.

Course Texts

1. Lectures, presentations, class discussion and small-group work will be employed.
2. Assigned readings for each class meeting.
3. Papers, tests, quizzes, projects, presentations and other documentation of student learning.
4. A minimum of 3,000 words of critical writing is required.
5. Instructor is available during regular office hours for conferring with students.
6. Students are responsible for assigned readings and writing assignments.

Projects

Project IV: Friendship Book Manuscript Project—the culminating collaborative project, conducted throughout the semester with its components posted on the course’s Web site, will entail a study of an original manuscript in Dr. Long’s possession, a nineteenth-century friendship book manuscript in which young women (and perhaps young men) recorded poems written to each other or occasional poems; students will research friendship books, nineteenth-century women’s literacy, publication of poetry, penmanship, and other issues.

Grading

Students will receive a letter grade for each of the five projects, and an additional letter grade derived from their attendance and participation. These will be averaged to produce the final course grade. An "A" is awarded to exceptional or excellent work; a "B," to very good work; a "C," to average work.

Attendance

The instructor takes attendance and a portion of the student’s grade is derived from attendance and participation in the class meetings. Absences in excess of 20% of the scheduled class sessions will result in the student’s being administratively withdrawn from the course (receiving a "W" grade) or if after the withdrawal date, receiving an "F."

Deadlines

Because community college students live complex lives, they sometimes need to request an extension of a deadline. Students in this course may request in advance of a deadline an extension until the next class meeting. They should not do so habitually because it jeopardizes their other work and can delay the professor’s evaluation and return of the work to the student. The final project of the course will not be accepted after the deadline.

Incompletes

Under extraordinary circumstances a student may request an incomplete for a current semester, that is the deferral of work due for the course until the end of the following term. This work due cannot constitute more than 50% of the course work; the student must otherwise be passing the course; and the circumstances prompting the request for an incomplete must be serious and beyond the students’ control.

Withdrawal

Students may withdraw from a course on their own until the mid-term date designated in the academic calendar. The professor may also process an administrative withdrawal of the student whose absences are excessive. Only under the most serious mitigating circumstances (requiring the student’s providing written documentation) can a student be withdrawn without penalty after the withdrawal date.

Week Of:

Course Introduction

Introduction to Women's Literary Studies

01/17    Autobiography

Cahill: Addams, Wharton, Gilman, Glasgow, Antin

Cahill: Hurston, Day, Hellman

Cahill: Welty, McCarthy, Sarton

Cahill: Settle, Angelou, Abbott, Didion

Cahill: Lorde, Millett, Clifton, Kingston, Giovanni

Cahill: Dillard, Allison, Kincaid, hooks, Cisneros, Crow Dog

02/07     Women and the Sacred

Ancient Traditions-- Hirshfield: Enheduanna, Makeda, Song of Songs, Gnostic Gospel, A Roman Spell

Eastern Traditions-- Hirshfield: Antal, Rabi'a, Three Tantric Songs, Izumi Shikibu, Mahadeviyakka, Lal Ded, Mirabai

Indigenous Traditions-- Hirshfield: Two Nahuatl Invocations, Uvavnuk, Tow Kwakiutl Prayers, Owl Woman, Osage Song, Traditional Navaho Prayer

Western Traditions-- Hirshfield: Hildegard of Bingen, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Hadewijch II, The French Beguine,

Hirshfield: Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, H.D. Nelly Sachs

 

02/28     Women and Drama (Introduction)

Clare Booth's The Women

03/06     Spring Break

Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes

Jane Bowles's In the Summer House

Gertrude Stein's The Mother of Us All

Eastern Poetic Traditions

Cosman, Keefe, and Weaver: Classic Tamil Love Poems (50f), Sanskrit Poetry (67f), From the Manyoshu (71f), Li Ching-chao (81f); Ping Hsin (282f)

Western Poetic Traditions

Cosman, Keefe, and Weaver: Marie de France (91f), Christine de Pisan (97f), Marguerite de Navarre (105f), Louise Labé (108f), Vittoria Colonna (112), Sor Juana Ines (137f)

African Poetic Traditions

Cosman, Keefe, and Weaver: 296-312

04/10 Writing Like a Man/Like a Woman

Parker & Willhardt: Chaucer and Dunbar; Herrick, Tucker, and Yeats; Pope and Madan; Barrett Browning and Browning; Swinburne and Sappho; Masters and Frost; Thompson and Hughes; Auden and Namjoshi; H.D. and Millay

Parker & Willhardt: "The Cross-Gendered Poem"

Culminating Project

Culminating Project

Course Wrap Up