English 350 Dr. Laura C. Jarmon
Women Writers Web 3 cred.
Spring 2000, UTM Office: H 131M, ext. 7327
Hrs.: TR 10-11
& by appt.
TEXTS
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. New York: Norton, 1996.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. [1976] rpt. New York: Vintage 1977.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. [1970] rpt. New York: Washington Square Press, 1972.
Walker, Nancy A. Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women. Jackson: Univ. P of Mississippi, 1990.
Movies
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Joy-Luck Club
The Color Purple
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a web-based course intended to permit students flexibility in completing the assigned work. For Weeks One through Seven (Jan. 12 through Mar. 6), the coursework will derive from the Norton anthology, and students will post discussion based on syllabus readings. For the remaining time, the coursework will derive from selected novels, films, and criticism, and students will post discussion on this matter.
This course presents contemporary views on problems in writing by, for, and about women, including literary works by selected women writers and critics. The course seeks to guide students in study of ways that literary works indicate for women the acquisition of voice, authority, and representation. The ironic voice, in particular, generates evidence of the woman’s need to achieve strategies of expression perhaps uniquely modern and feminine.
COURSE PURPOSE, GOAL, AND OBJECTIVES
This course of study has the goal of orienting students to theoretical approaches to literature particularly related to women. The course should yield students who are adequately informed about the development of women’s literature, including problems of identity, authority, and presence both as subjects and artists of women’s literature. As well, students are expected to demonstrate independent investigative skills, reflected by listing research materials in addition to the syllabus list; essays will evaluate comparatively the aesthetics of at least two genres, or at least two works in the same genre, or otherwise demonstrate analytical complexity; exam responses should reflect sophistication and critical intellect--as represented in the depth of insight presented in written analyses; and the number and caliber of secondary sources should evidence ability to evaluate the pertinence of such sources.
In addition, as defined by the Tennessee Teacher Licensure Standards, students should gain the following knowledge and skills:
a knowledge of an appreciation for the social, philosophical, aesthetic, and historical dimensions of language
a greater understanding of the regional, colloquial, cultural, and national diversity in language and discourse
a knowledge of a wide range of discourse from many periods and cultures as reflected in various genres and related to classroom reading and writing
a better ability to make connections among various literary selections and between literature and the other arts
a better ability to relate a wide range of print and visual texts, both classical and contemporary to their lives
a better ability to communicate persuasively orally and in writing
a better ability to incorporate questioning techniques that emphasize critical thinking, such as inference, evaluation, comparison, contrast, analysis, synthesis, criticism, and appreciation
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Assignments
All students will:
complete all assigned readings as listed in the schedule
submit five (5) critical reviews presented as discussion postings
submit one analytical essay of about 1000 words long [mid-term examination]
submit one analytical essay of about 2000 words long [with annotated bibliography]
complete a final examination.
Each of these elements will constitute 20% of the grade for the course.
TIMELINESS: Essays and reports are due on the dates assigned. Any work submitted after the due date will receive a grade reduced by one full letter grade for each week that it is late.
SCHEDULE
The schedule roughs out weeks in which course work
should be completed, giving some time elasticity on postings.
Jan. 12 Introduction: Ideas on the woman’s voice and role in literature
19 Week One: women’s writing; theoretical statements
read in Norton (N): Wolfe, “A Room...” 1338; Lowell, “The Sisters...” 1271; and Rich, “When we Dead...” 1980
26 Week Two: short fiction; N: Parker, “The Waltz” 1557; McCullers, “The Ballad...” 1748; and Oates, “Where are you...” 2203
Feb. 02 Week Three: poetry; N: Rich, “Diving into the Wreck” 1960; comparables of choice
09 Week Four: drama; N: Churchill, Top Girls, 2153; “Jocasta” [tba]
16 Week Five: theory and genre--review and evaluation
short fiction; N: Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” 1133, and film, The Yellow Wallpaper; Olsen, “Tell Me a Riddle” 1702
23 Week Six: black women; N: Truth,”Ain’t I...” 370; Nelson, “I Sit...” 1308; Hurston, “How it Feels...” 1498; Bonner, “On Being Young...” 1577
Mar. 01 Week Seven: theory; Walker, Feminist Alternatives, ch. 1 & 2; Irony: Muecke, Booth [pages tba]
Mid-term (due before March 6)
08 Week Eight: theory: Walker, chapters 3, 4, 5: Fantasy & Alternatives
15 Week Nine: Spring Break
22 Week Ten: Novel; Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale--speech, language, discourse
Movie: The Handmaid’s Tale; novel and movie, textual analysis, discussion
29 Week Eleven: Atwood; critical reviews and discussion, cont.
Apr. 05 Week Twelve: Novel; Kingston, The Woman Warrior--authority and presence
Movie: The Joy-Luck Club (Amy Tan’s novel of title), textual analysis, discussion
12 Week Thirteen: Kingston and Tan, critical reviews and discussion, cont.
19 Week 14: Novel; Morrison, The Bluest Eye--autobiography, identity, narration
Movie: The Color Purple (Alice Walker’s novel of title), textual analysis, discussion
26 Week Fifteen: Morrison and Walker, critical reviews and discussion, cont.
May 01 Week Sixteen: Classes end
10 Final
Examination due by noon
ASSIGNMENTS EXPLANATION
Discussion Postings
A discussion posting is your presentation of ideas on a selected topic. The topic is given in the schedule by the week, as with Week One, the topic for which is women’s writing and theoretical statements by Wolfe, Lowell, and Rich. A discussion posting occurs when you log on and make comments about the topic, your comments then being rather like an invitation to the rest of us to comment further on your ideas or offer our own. Desired is a dialogue among us such that we study and grow wiser as a result of one another’s opinions.
Technically, you must make five discussion postings, and they begin as critical reviews in which you comment on a critic’s opinion of the work or topic for the week. Get the critic’s views from the list of secondary sources or other sources that you identify on your own. The five discussion postings occur as follows:
for weeks one through four, select one topic/week, and make a posting by Wednesday. this will yield just one discussion posting/critical review for the total of four weeks. This single posting is your required contribution; however, if you choose to respond to someone else’s posting, this response is to your credit, although not satisfying the required five discussion postings oversll;
for week five, everyone should make a posting, on the topics generated in the works
for weeks ten through fifteen, everyone should make a total of three postings, one for Atwood, one for Kingston, and one for Morrison.
Note that throughout the semester, discussion is considered
healthy and desirable. Thus, within
reason, so far as dialogue continues, such interaction is considered healthy,
positive, and worthy of graded note.
Critical reviews
A critical review is an analysis of a secondary source. It should name the source, giving its
reference according to the MLA style for a work cited. It should describe the source as being a
book, a journal article, a book review, or whatever is accurate. It should give some sense of the length of
the source, and evaluate the source based on whether it is a well presented and
effective argument on some thesis: you summarize the thesis for us. As a review, this item should let us know
the substance of the secondary source, especially the relation between the
source and some discussion topic pertinent to our classwork. Keep the length between 125 and 150
words. Post this critical review by
Wednesday of the second week’s study of a novel [i.e., for Atwood, the critical
review should be posted by Week Eleven (Wednesday, March 29). You may also comment on others’ critical
reviews, but such commentary is aside from your required review, and it should
be kept to a reasonable length.
Textual Analysis
Textual analysis is the process of naming or speculating on the features of a work, including the work’s strengths, weaknesses, and worth. As analysis, such an observation succinctly, concretely, and assertively claims that the works parts are identifiable and operate in specific ways for some identifiable goal. An analysis names the parts as the evaluator sees them, and it names the way these parts operate toward a goal, specifying this goal. Textual analysis is strengthened with illustration from the literary work under scrutiny, and it can often be supported by ideas from secondary sources. Your analytical essays begin as textual analyses. Your discussion postings should be governed by textual analyses which generates your particular viewpoint on a selected literary work.
Analytical Essays
Essay of 1000 words: further description tba [this is the mid-term exam]
Essay of 2000 words, with annotated bibliography: further description tba
Final Examination
Write an essay of about 500 to 700 words, analyzing the form, content, and tone of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (Norton 1013), as this work compares and contrasts with one of the following: The Handmaid’s Tale, The Woman Warrior, or The Bluest Eye. Use primary and secondary sources for documentation.