20th c. U. S. Women Writers
Professor Glynis Carr
Spring Semester 2003
Office: 207-C Vaughan Literature Building
Office Hours: M, W 11-12 am and 4:30-5:00 pm; Th 4:00-4:30 pm; and
by appointment.
Phone: 577-3118 (Office); 577-1553 (Vickie Snyder, secretary);
523-7486 (Home)
Texts and Materials
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905)
Nella Larson, Quicksand (1928)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Alix Kates Shulman, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen (1972)
Toni Morrison, Sula (1973)
Sarah Schulman, Girls, Visions, and Everything (1986)
Faye Ng, Bone (1993)
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1989)
Critical essays and short stories (available via E-RES)
Links
to Related Sites / Suggestions for Further
Reading. Under Construction.
Course Description
In this course, we will read a variety of twentieth-century U.S. women
fiction writers--African American, Asian-American, European American,
Latina, and Native American--with attention to commonalities and differences
among women, the social contexts of women's lives, and the formal and
thematic issues that make this literature such a rich and rewarding area
of study. We will explore the possibilities of a “women’s tradition”
in U.S. prose literature, emphasizing its diversity and intersections
with other traditions. Students should come away from the course
with an understanding of the major trends in twentieth-century literature
(the movement from modernism to postmodernism and the persistence of realism).
Students will also be introduced to the materials and methods of research
in this area.
Course Objectives
- To read widely in significant 20th c. U.S. literature by women.
- To become familiar with the broad outlines of 20th c. U.S. literary history.
- To learn the intellectual, historical, and biographical backgrounds necessary to understand the literature of the period.
- To explore the genres, forms, conventions, and other special uses of language in 20th c. literature.
- To become aware of how race, class, and gender influence literary production and interpretation.
- To appreciate both commonality and diversity among women.
- To practice the skills of critical reading, research, expository writing, and intelligent discussion.
The class meetings center on discussion. Lectures, when given at all, will be brief and informal. Occasionally we will view films in class. All graded work is individual.
We will not discuss every reading assignment at equal length in class, nor will lectures recapitulate the readings. Reading and class attendance do not substitute for one another. Students are expected to come to class having done the reading and writing assignments and prepared to contribute to discussion.
This is not a W-class. Students will write (after reading, discussion, and research), but writing as a process will not be taught, rough drafts will not be peer edited in class, and so on. For students wishing to work on their writing skills, individual help is available from me during my office hours, as well as from the Writing Center.
Assignments and Evaluation
Attendance and participation in class discussions will count toward students' final grades. Students will be evaluated most highly who attend regularly and participate enthusiastically.
In lieu of a comprehensive final exam, students will keep a reading journal, due at the beginning of each week. The purpose of the journal is to document your reading experience (for yourself) and your coverage of the assigned material (for me). You can also include your ideas in response to class discussions and your work in the library. Weekly journals will also help you prepare to speak in class, as every journal should include a question about some aspect of the text, such as its structure or theme, issues of reader response, interpretation, or comparison with other texts. I hope you learn to engage texts actively and critically. In connection with the research paper (see below), I hope the course as a whole teaches you how scholarly research is motivated by individual and collective questions.
The major assignment for this class is a research paper (7-10 pp.) on a literary critical topic of your own choosing. The research paper should reflect your original ideas about one or more of the works studied, as well as library research. Papers should be typed and include a properly formated (MLA style) bibliography of all primary and secondary sources cited.
To prepare to write this paper, students will engage two short exercises (more detailed handouts about which will be distributed in class).
1. The first exercise is for you to produce a "Working Bibliography" of literary criticism about some aspect of 20th c. U.S. women's fiction. Your bibliography can focus on a particular text or texts, a theme, a contextual issue, or some formal aspect of the literature. The bibliography should include both primary and secondary sources. The purpose of this exercise is to sharpen your library skills.
2. "Critics in Conflict," the second exercise, consists of reading the sources you identified in exercise #1 above until you find at least two critics who disagree about some issue or whose approach to the same question or text differs. You will analyze the disagreement and explain your own position. The purpose of this exercise is to develop your analytical skills by studying how literary critics construct their arguments and provide evidence for the claims they make about what a text means. This exercise should also help you gain awareness of and clarify your own literary critical values and practices.
The final grade will be distributed as follows: Attendance and participation,
15%; Working Bibliography, 15%; Critics in Conflict, 15%; Research paper,
25%; Reading journal (final exam) 30%.
Schedule of Assignments
Week 1: Jan. 15
Introduction to the Course
Week 2&3: Jan. 20-22-27-29
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth
Week 4: Feb. 3-5
Nella Larson's Quicksand
Week 5: Feb. 10-12
Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Week 6 & 7: Feb. 17-19-24-26
Short stories by Anzia Yezierska, Meridel LeSeuer, Helen Hull, Willa Cather,
Hisaye Yamamoto, Frances Gray Patton, Tillie Olsen
Due Feb. 28: Working Bibliography
Week 8: March 3-5
Alix Kates Shulman, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
Due March 5: Reading Journals for first half of course (includes
Alix Kates Shulman).
Week 9: NO CLASSES -- SPRING RECESS
Week 10: March 17-19
Toni Morrison, Sula
Week 11: March 24-26
Short stories by Alice Walker, Beth Brant, Leslie Marmon Silko; material
from Native American oral traditions.
Week 12: March 31-April 2
Sarah Schulman, Girls, Visions, and Everything
Due April 4 (Friday): Critics in Conflict essay
Week 13: April 7-9
Faye Ng, Bone
Week 14: April 14-16
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Week 15: April 21-23
Short fiction by Tahira Naqvi, Meena Alexander, Kathy Acker, and
others.
Week 16: April 30
Wrap-up: Course evaluations; study guide for final exam.
Due: Reading Journals for the second half of the semester
The research paper will be due at the time and place specified by the registrar for our final exam.
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