Unit I • Unit II • Unit III • Unit IV • Unit V • Unit VI
Unit One
Reviewing Tradition
Objectives
- Define the characteristics of a female tradition in literature.
- Determine how women’s writing from the past has informed or inspired contemporary women’s writing, as guides and maps.
- Show how forgotten or ignored women are revivified through a reviewing of history and of "literature."
- Explain the importance of a woman’s perspective on writing and reading.
- Determine the economic and social factors which have influenced women writers.
Readings
- Adrienne Rich, "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re–Vision," The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, p. 1980.
- "Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers," p. 1955.
- "Snapshots of a Daughter–in–Law," p. 1955.
- "Diving Into the Wreck," p. 1960.
- "Power," p. 1962.
- "Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev," p. 1964.
- "Claiming an Education," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 231.
- "Taking Women Students Seriously," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 237.
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.
- Bronwen Wallace, "A Simple Poem for Virginia Woolf," reproduced in Study Guide.
Unit Two
Re-Imaging Women
Objectives
- Consider the implications of feminist interpretations of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man.
- Deconstruct traditional images of women as angels or devils, virgins or whores.
- Analyse the implications of mirror images of women and images of madwomen.
- Compare the struggle towards selfhood in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.
- Analyse the significance of the journey motif in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.
- Identify the images of domestic enclosure and of routes of evasion and escape in the two novels.
Readings
- Christina Rossetti, "Eve," Norton, p. 915.
- Stevie Smith, "How Cruel is the Story of Eve," Norton, p. 1622
- Dorothy Livesay, "Eve," Norton, p. 1638..
- Christina Rossetti, "In an Artist’s Studio," Norton, p. 915.
- Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, "The Other Side of a Mirror," Norton, p. 1145.
- Margaret Atwood, "This is a Photograph of Me," Norton, p. 2216.
- Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre," Norton, p. 472.
- Virginia Woolf, "Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights," Norton, p. 1328.
- Adrienne Rich, "Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman,"
- On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 89.
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Unit Three
Recasting Roles
Objectives
- Explain the consequences for women of male–defined roles.
- Analyse the ways in which women writers have redefined women’s roles in their poetry and plays.
- Determine the ways in which gender is constructed.
- Investigate the ways in which psychoanalytical theory may be applied to women’s writing.
- Analyse expressions of a matrilineal heritage, and the significance of the role of women as mothers.
- Analyse the significance of women’s "achievements" in a socially and sexually hierarchical society.
Readings
- Anne Sexton, "Consorting with Angels," Norton, p. 1912.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh," Norton, p. 391.
- Muriel Rukeyser, "Myth," Norton, p. 1701.
- Adrienne Rich, "Motherhood in Bondage," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 195.
- "Motherhood: The Contemporary Emergency and the Quantum Leap,"On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 259.
- Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens," Norton, p. 2315.
- Sylvia Plath, "The Disquieting Muses," Norton, p. 2081.
- Anne Sexton, "Housewife," Norton, p. 1911.
- "Her Kind," Norton, p. 1910.
- Caryl Churchill, "Top Girls," Norton, p. 2153.
Unit Four
Rewriting Language
Objectives
- Examine how language has been constructed as a means by which the patriarchy has relegated women to the position of "other."
- Analyse the ways in which écriture féminine is an expression of the female body.
- Determine the ways in which Emily Dickinson expresses a woman’s point of view and experience.
- Examine the ways in which some women poets explore the possibilities of language for self-discovery and empowerment.
Readings
- Adrienne Rich, "Power and Danger: Works of a Common Woman," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 247.
- Emily Dickinson, "I’m Nobody! Who are you?" Norton, p. 862.
- "Mine—by the Right of White Election," p. 871.
- "A solemn thing—it was—I said," p. 861.
- "Come slowly—Eden!" p. 860.
- "A Word made Flesh is seldom," p. 883.
- "Tell All the Truth but tell it slant," p. 881.
- "There’s a certain Slant of light," p. 860.
- "They shut me up in Prose," p. 874.
- "I dwell in Possibility," p. 875.
- "Volcanoes be in Sicily," p. 885.
- Adrienne Rich, "Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 157.
- Sylvia Plath, "Words," Norton, p. 2099.Margaret Atwood, "Spelling," Norton, p. 2216.
- "Marsh Language," Norton, p. 2220.
- Daphne Marlatt, "(Dis)spelling," reproduced in Study Guide.
Unit Five
Reliving Experience
Objectives
- Determine how women’s life experiences are validated by women’s writing, and how the nature of women’s writing is conditioned by uniquely female experiences.
- Show the relationship between self–destruction and creativity in women’s writing.
- Analyse the personal and communal implications of survival as a preoccupation in women’s writing.
- Determine the significance of the recurring references to confinement or imprisonment in women’s writing.
- Describe the characteristics of lesbian writing.
Readings
- Adrienne Rich, "Conditions for Work: The Common World of Women," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 203.
- Bronwen Wallace, "The Woman in this Poem," reproduced in Study Guide.
- Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus," Norton, p. 2097.
- "Edge," Norton, p. 2099.
- Muriel Rukeyser, "The Power of Suicide," Norton, p. 1696.
- Anne Sexton, "Sylvia’s Death," Norton, p. 1913.
- Adrienne Rich, "Anne Sexton: 1928–1974," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 121.
- Bronwen Wallace, "One Last Poem for the Dead," reproduced in Study Guide.
- Emily Dickinson, "One need not be a Chamber," Norton, p. 876.
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper," Norton, p. 1133.
- Adrienne Rich, "Twenty–one Love Poems XI," Norton, p. 1962.
- "It is the Lesbian in Us," On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, p. 223.
Unit Six
Redefining the Margins
Objectives
- Ascertain the difference in approach between "humanist" and "socialist" critical theory.
- Determine to what extent the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft are premised on political assumptions evident in her concept of "femininity."
- Determine how social assumptions about the marginalization of women are reflected or challenged in the works of Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Laurence, Emma LaRocque, and Lee Maracle.
- Analyse the concept of "marginalization" in terms of "literature" and the creation of a "canon."
Readings
- Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpts from "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," Norton, p. 258.
- Nadine Gordimer, "Town and Country Lovers," Norton, p. 1854.
- Margaret Laurence, "The Loons," Norton, p. 1901.
- Emma LaRocque, "Sweeping," reproduced in the Study Guide.
- Lee Maracle, Ravensong.
