Norton Western Literature

[Perpetuo Carlson]

Inthiscourse, we will survey the history of western literature in Englishby women. The field is too large to examine exhaustively and wecannot hope to cover every major female author writing in her periodin America and Great Britain nor can we hope to look at every topicthat has concerned women writers. We will, however, touch on as manyseminal female authors as we can, and on the issues they have writtenabout. As we do so, we will examine not only a variety of literarygenres by women poetry, stories, and novels - but other materials aswell, including conduct materials and essays about women and theircultural place. For the most part, the texts we read will bewoman-penned, but occasionally male-authored works will be includedto provide other points of view. Over the course of the semester, wewill focus on a number of thematic cultural issues, such as women's"real nature" and the societal roles sanctioned for them at differentmoments in western history. As we attend to the shifts in definitionsof women's nature and their roles, we will move toward an awarenessof the ways that femininity and female identity get constructed. Aswe do so, we will examine the ways that gender itself, maleand female, and the ways the two sexes interact, areconstructs that shift over time.

In looking at literary genres, wewill of course attend to their literariness, but we will also examinethe ways these participate with other cultural texts to constructfemale identity; we will look, that is, at the ways women's textsreact to previous constructs of accepted femininity and femaleidentity, challenging or enlarging on such constructs. Because thequestion of female identity overlaps with questions of class andrace, we will discuss these complications of the issue of 'natural"femininity. We will be doing a lot of reading and writing and I willexpect you to keep up. You will also be expected to participate indiscussion; doing so will comprise a percentage of yourgrade.

Supplementary works will be onreserve at Milner. You may find them helpful for your presentationsand/or papers (see assignments, below). I may at times require you toread something on reserve. We may also view films as agroup.

Assignmentsand Grades:Your grade will be based on participation, on written work performedin class, on analytic and research-based papers written outside ofclass, on any group work I may give in class, and on a final, if Iassign one. I will assign 3 papers. You will each also be required togive a presentation on one of the major works we'll bediscussing.

Attendance andPaper Policies: We will follow a modified version of the EnglishDepartment's policy on attendance. According to that policy, you maytake a total of one week's worth of excused absences, but once yourabsences have exceeded two weeks' class meetings, your grades suffer.In this class, I will not differentiate between excused and unexcusedabsences; once your absences exceed 2 weeks of class meetings, yourgrade may fall one-half letter grade for each additional absence.Once your absences exceed 3 weeks of class meetings - 6 absences -your grade may drop to fail. Very late arrivals and very earlydepartures will be counted as absences, as will your coming to classunable to add to discussion from utter unpreparedness - from nothaving read the text, for example. If you are absent on days on whichwe are writing essays in class or doing group work, in addition tobeing marked absent, you will receive a fail for those grades.In-class writing and discussion cannot be made up. Other assignmentshanded in late will also adversely affect your grade, unless you havediscussed your need to hand a paper in late beforehand with me.Generally, papers handed in late will drop one full letter grade foreach day they're late, and after one week, they will not be accepted.Plagiarism will result in a fail on the paper, a fail in the course,and action taken against you through the appropriate universitychannels. Newspaper reading, sleeping, and private conversation inclass, along with any other rudenesses, will not betolerated.

This subject examines a range of Classical and Christian works to establish how and why they have been influential in Western literature and thought. Students who complete this subject successfully will have read a representative range of Classical literature (representing epic, mythology, elegy, pastoral, satire, theology, literary theory), will have studied several books of the Bible and been introduced to various schools of interpretation (from Patristic to modern times), and will have investigated the many ways in which Classical and biblical writings have influenced western thought and literature over the past two millennia.

A 3000 word essay 75% (due at the end of the semester), a 20 minute class presentation, equivalent to 1000 words 25% (completed during the semester and submitted in hard copy at the end of the semester). Assessment submitted late without a formal extension will be penalised at the rate of 1% per day late. Assessment will not be accepted in electronic format.

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