ENGL
1664: Introduction to Women's Literature
Fall 2006, #92523
MWF
10:10-11:0o, SAUNDERS 409
[please note the change of room from original]
Contact Information | General Course Information | Hausman Homepage
Course Texts (ordered at University Bookstore):
A
Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (Norton Critical Edition)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs (Harvard
University Press edition)
Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman;
Dessa Rose, Sherley Anne Williams
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
Summer, Edith Wharton (Signet Classics)
Herland is also available online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GilHerl.html and http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=32 .
Movies (shown in class): Jane Austen's Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow) and Smooth Talk, a movie with Laura Dern that is based on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates.
This course will survey women writers in the English language, examining how they have represented the trials and tribulations of feminine experience since the Enlightenment. We will begin with Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, to set the stage, and turn to Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) and Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) in the 19th century, and then look at works by Edith Wharton (Summer), Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Herland), Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones), and Sherley Ann Williams (Dessa Rose) in the 20th century.
Each of these works represents the writer's attempt to articulate how women respond to their unique experiences as women in male-dominated societies. Most of these texts also focus on women's relationships with each other. Our main aim is to read what women have to say about themselves and the world, looking specifically for observations about women's lives and experiences. One theme of the course concerns the function of romance and sexuality in the lives of women. Another concerns how women think about themselves as writers and artists. All of these fictional texts are also political treatises about women's situation and ongoing aspirations. We will find that women writers write with bitterness, insight, desperation, and humor about their lives, and we will cry, laugh, and wonder along with them.
How to navigate this website:
Below on this page you will find the assignments and reading schedule for this course. Under assignments, you will see how much each assignment is worth as a percentage of your final grade. The reading schedule includes the lecture schedule, quiz dates, exam dates, and the due date for the library lab report, as well as information about what to read when.
Under General Course Info (another web page) you will find links to Prof. Hausman's teaching pages, including information about how to read for her classes, expectations for written work, feminist pedagogy, undergraduate academic policies (see esp. pages on plagiarism) and the honor code, etc. It is your responsibility as a student in Prof. Hausman's class to be familiar with these guidelines and expectations.
Statement on student accommodation:
Students who have a disability or other condition that requires accommodation should discuss the issue with Prof. Hausman early in the semester. Students need not disclose their condition with the professor, merely provide her with documentation from the Dean of Students Office concerning the necessary accommodation. Students may make an appointment or come to Prof. Hausman's office hours (posted on contact info page). All conversations between individual students and the professor will remain confidential.
There are three main kinds of assessment used to determine your grade in this class: quizzes, exams, and the library lab report. The total for all of the assignments is 101 points, and the course is graded out of 100 (so you have an extra credit point built into the grading system). Any time you want to know your grade, just add up your points. But pay attention--I will drop the two lowest quiz scores, so if you miss a quiz or two, or do poorly on a couple, you can drop those scores.
QUIZZES: There are 7 quizzes for this course. Each quiz will be worth 6 points; I will drop the two lowest grades. Quizzes cannot be made up or taken at an alternate time: they are conducted in class. The quizzes will assess your reading comprehension and whether or not you have read the assigned text. The quizzes count for 30% of the final grade.
EXAMS: There is a midterm exam and a final exam in this course. The midterm exam is worth 20 points and the final exam is worth 30 points. The exams cover all the lectures and course readings. Together the exams count for 50% of the final grade.
LIBRARY REPORTS: There will be three library reports for the course, each worth 7 points, adding up to 20% of the final grade. The library reports will cover biography, book reviews, and literary criticism. The assignment will be described in greater detail as soon as possible.
SELF-EVALUATION: Students must hand in a self-evaluation during the last week of class or at the final exam. The self-evaluation is ungraded, but a grade will not be assigned unless the self-evaluation is handed in. Information on the self-evaluation can be found at this link.
Reading Schedule and Lecture Topics:
NOTE ON READING FOR THIS CLASS: Quizzes are administered on the first day we begin to discuss a text. All students should have finished the text by the day of the quiz. Lectures on that text will continue while students are reading the next assigned book for class. Please make sure to keep up with your reading. The course schedule is set up to accommodate longer texts (see reading schedule).
August 21: Introductions; beginning lecture on women's literature and feminist literary theory. Start reading A Room of One's Own.
23, 25: Start of lectures on Virginia Woolf. Keep reading A Room of One's Own.
28: QUIZ on A Room of One's Own. Begin lectures on Room. Start reading Jane Eyre.
30: Continuing lecture on A Room of One's Own.
Sept. 1, 4, 6: Viewing of Jane Austen's Emma plus lecture/discussion on Sept. 6. Keep reading Jane Eyre.
8: MEET IN THE LIBRARY FOR CLASS ON HOW TO USE THE LIBRARY'S DATABASES AND REFERENCE BOOKS FOR THE LIBRARY REPORTS. Students with last names that begin with A through H will meet in Torgerson 3310, which is just outside Newman on the 4th floor, before entering the bridge to Torgerson Hall. Students with last names that begin with I through Z will meet in Newman Library room 207, on the 2nd floor in the center of the building.
11: Final lecture on A Room of One's Own.
13: QUIZ Jane Eyre. Begin lectures on Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre. Start reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
15, 18, 20, 22: Continuing lectures on Jane Eyre. Keep reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
25: QUIZ on Incidents. Begin lectures on Incidents.
27, 29: Lectures on Incidents. Start reading Summer.
29: Biography Library Report due.
October 2: NO CLASS (YOM KIPPUR). USE THIS TIME TO WORK ON YOUR SECOND LIBRARY REPORT.
4: QUIZ on Summer. Begin lectures on Edith Wharton and Summer. Start reading Herland.
6: Lecture on Summer. Keep reading Herland.
9: Fall Break, no class. Keep reading Herland.
11: Lecture on Summer. Review for midterm exam.
13: MIDTERM EXAM--Professor out of town; exam to be proctored.
16: Continued lecture on Summer or lecture on women's poetry in the 20th century.
18: QUIZ on Herland. Lecture on Herland and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Hand back midterms and review. Start reading Dessa Rose.
20: Hand back midterms and review. Keep reading Dessa Rose.
23, 25, 27: Lectures on Herland. Keep reading Dessa Rose.
27: Book Review Library Report due.
30: Quiz on Dessa Rose. Begin lectures on Dessa Rose. Start reading The Lovely Bones.
Nov. 1, 3, 6: Lectures on Dessa Rose. Keep reading The Lovely Bones.
8: "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (handout).
10, 13, 15: Viewing of Smooth Talk, the film version of "Where are you going?." Keep reading The Lovely Bones.
17: Literary Criticism Library Report due. Discussion of Smooth Talk and "Where are you going?."
NOV. 18-26: THANKSGIVING BREAK
27: QUIZ on The Lovely Bones. Begin lectures on The Lovely Bones and Alice Sebold.
29, Dec. 1, 4: Continuing lectures on The Lovely Bones.
6: Last day of class. Wrap-up lecture. Self-evaluation due.
13: FINAL EXAM, 7:45-9:45am.
©Bernice L. Hausman, all rights reserved.