English
307: Women in Literature is a senior-level, three-credit course
which introduces you to writing by and about women. English
307 describes and critically examines the tradition of women's writing,
deconstructs the pervasive images of women in literature, and analyses
the way in which women define their experiences in terms of language.
You will read a wide variety of works in prose and verse-including
three novels, a play, short stories, essays,
and poetry by British, American, Canadian, European, and
African writers. Many of these works from the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries are interrelated or comment on each other, so that as
you proceed through the course, you should develop an understanding
of the way in which a tradition in women's writing has evolved,
and in what ways this tradition has encouraged or informed the works
of individual authors.
The
Study Guide for English 307 comprises six units, each
of which attempts to provide a different critical perspective on
women's writing. Although this is not a course on critical theory,
the recent development of feminist critical theory offers
a diversity of ways of approaching women's writing which may not
have been previously considered. Unit I introduces the women's tradition
in literature (historical and cultural criticism). Unit II investigates
recurrent images of women in literature, and how these are re-imagined
by women writers (myth criticism). Unit III interrogates the roles
in which women have typically been cast (psychoanalytical criticism).
Unit IV investigates the possibility of a "women's language" (linguistic
criticism). Unit V shows how uniquely female experiences are articulated
(lesbian criticism). Unit VI examines the underlying and overt social
and political contexts of women's writing (socialist/Marxist criticism).
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