Spring 2007 LITR 443: Women's Literature

Dr. Annette Wannamaker

603L Pray Harrold     Office Hours: MW 12 – 1 p.m.

awannamak AT emich DOT edu

Course Description:

We will read, write about, and discuss literary texts and their historical and cultural contexts in order to explore the following questions:

• What is women's literature?
• Is it distinct from men's literature?
• Is the difference a matter of perspective? A difference in subject matter? Or, do women write differently?
• What are the aesthetics of women's writing?
• Can we define women's writing? What is at stake in defining women's writing?
• How is women's writing shaped by experience? By bodies? By culture? By complex, multiple identifications with race, social class, sexual orientation, nationality, age, and religion? What are the politics of women's writing?

Required Texts:

• Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Speak.
• Edson, Margaret. W;t.
• Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues.
• Holdstein, Deborah, Ed. The Prentice Hall Anthology of Women’s Literature, (listed as PH on the Reading schedule)  Note:  This book is out of print, but Mike’s Book Store has managed to find used copies of it we can use.
• Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior.
• Klaus, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate.
• Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye.

Notes on the reading:

• Please buy all of your books at the beginning of the term.  If you wait until the day before we read a text to purchase it, you may not be able to find a copy.
• Some of the reading in this course is "adult" in nature; it contains the sort of images of sex or sexuality you might find in an R-rated or NC-17-rated film. This material is required reading and will be discussed in class. (After all, you can't talk about women and female identity without discussing sex, bodies, sexuality, etc.). If you think you might be offended by such reading or discussions, you may want to consider dropping the course.)

Explanation of Course Requirements and Grading Scale:

Reading Quizzes and Attendance Policy: I will give 12 reading quizzes over the course of the term.  The quizzes will be on basic information in the reading and will be given promptly at 9 a.m.  In order to succeed in this course you must do the reading and you must come to class regularly and on time--the quizzes are incentive to help you succeed in these areas.  If you miss class, you earn a 0 for that day's quiz.  If you come to class late, you earn a 0 for that day's quiz. (It is very rude to come in to class, take the quiz, and then leave—only an emergency should prevent you from staying for the entire class.) There are no quiz "make-ups."  However, I understand that students have lives and things come up that prevent you from always doing all the reading or coming to every class.  Therefore, I've built "excused" absences into my quiz grading system.  We will have 12 quizzes, worth 10 points each (a possible 120 points). The quizzes, however, only count for 100 points.  Therefore, you can miss two quizzes, and still earn a perfect 100. Please keep this grading system in mind as you plan your schedule:  for example, if you have a family trip scheduled and know in advance you'll need to miss a class, plan ahead so that you can count the absence as one of the two “excused” absences.

Presentation/Book Report:Choose one text (a novel, short story, poem, play, graphic novel, etc.) that is not included on the syllabus, but which you think should be.  Do a BRIEF “show and tell” report for the class (maximum of 5 minutes).  Do not give the class a scene-by-scene plot summary—instead, imagine you are telling a friend why they should read this text. A written report is also due on the day you give presentation. Write a 2-3 page report that briefly summarizes the text and that explains why it is an example of women’s literature that is worthy of study in a college class and worthy of critical attention. A good way to do this is to draw comparisons with other texts we are reading for class, to include specific textual examples, or to consider the text within the context of important themes and aesthetic issues we’ve been discussing in class. Only the first 1/4 of the paper (one half page) should be plot summary—the rest should be analysis.

Seminar Paper:  Students will write a 10-page seminar paper that uses research in order to analyze one or more of the texts being read and discussed for the course. I’ll be giving out handouts with seminar paper guidelines.

Final Exam: Students will be expected to demonstrate comprehension of the literary texts read and discussed during the term. Students will be expected to answer short fill-in-the-blank questions based on the texts we read and our in-class discussions about these. Students also should be able to draw connections among texts by answering several essay questions. These essay questions will require students to demonstrate an ability to discuss characteristics of women’s literature, to demonstrate a fluency with literary terminology, to discuss texts within cultural contexts, and to draw on class discussions of various literary and cultural theories. 

Reading and Presentation Schedule:

May 7:            Introduction to Course:  What is Women's Literature?

                        Sign up for Book Reports.

May 9:            Quiz No. 1

Read "from A Room of One's Own; Shakespeare's Sister," Woolf, 288-295 PH, read "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens," Walker, 888-896 PH, and read Trifles, Glaspell, 301-311 PH.  

May 14:            Quiz No. 2

Read Sections I and II of Woman Warrior.

May 16:            Quiz No. 3

Finish Woman Warrior.

May 21:            Quiz No. 4

Read "The Management of Grief" Mukherjee, 826-838 PH.

May 23:                Quiz No. 5

Read "The Yellow Wall-paper," Gilman, 139-151 PH, read "Sweat," Hurston, 278-287 PH, "The Revolt of Mother," Freeman, 126-138 PH, and "Marriage," Coleridge, 154 PH.

May 28:              Memorial Day.  No class.

May 30:              Quiz No. 6

Read The Bluest Eye.

June 4:              Quiz No. 7

Read "To Room Nineteen" Lessing, 539-564 PH, "I Stand Here Ironing," Olsen, 505-511 PH, and "The Mother," Brooks, 532 PH.

June 6:              Quiz No. 8

Read "Barbie Doll," Piercy, 739-40 PH, "Naked Girl in the Mirror," Wright, 521 PH, "After reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed," Dove, 987-8 PH, “From a Survivor,” Rich 680-681,and “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy,” Plath (712-715).           

June 11:             Quiz No. 9

Read Speak.

June 13:             No class. Dr. Wannamaker out of town for a conference.           

June 18:              Quiz No. 10

Read W;t

Rough Draft of Seminar Paper due for Writing Workshop.

June 20:              Quiz No. 11

Read The Vagina Monologues.                   

June 25:              Quiz No. 12

Read Blood and Chocolate

June 27:             Final Exam

                        Seminar Paper Due.

Politeness Policies:  Part of my job as a professor is to create a learning environment where students feel safe, respected, and able to get the most out of their learning experiences.  I promise to treat all students with respect, but also must work to maintain a structured learning environment.  I’m assuming that the following statements will seem obvious to most of you, but 15 years of teaching college students has taught me that there will be some students who need these rules of classroom etiquette spelled out in an obvious way:

Be on time.  When you come to class late, it is disruptive to everyone around you.  If you cannot make it to my class on time (9 a.m., not 9:02 or even 9:01) please drop the course.

Turn off your cell phone.  It is not okay for your cell phone to ring in any classroom, ever.  If you are expecting a very important call (your wife is about to have a baby, for instance) you can talk to me before class to let me know that your cell phone will be on.  Otherwise, turn it off.

Be respectful of the instructor and your fellow students. 

These are examples of behaviors that are not respectful.  When students exhibit the following behaviors, I assume they do not want to be in class and will ask if they prefer to leave.

• doing your math homework or reading the newspaper during a lecture.
• coming to class unprepared.  We cannot have a discussion about a text if students have not done the assigned reading.  Since my classes are based on the assumption that students have read the assigned material, most often, you will not get a lot out of our discussions  if you didn’t do the reading.
• text messaging a friend on your cell phone or blackberry; playing a game on your cell phone.
• whispering or making notes to the person sitting next to you.
• putting your books into your backpack 5 minutes before class is over.
• interrupting other students when they are speaking, telling a fellow student to “shut up,” telling a fellow student his/her beliefs are stupid, immoral, wrong, silly, etc.
• Walking in and out of the classroom during class (unless, of course, there is an emergency).

These are examples of behaviors that are okay:

• You can always raise your hand to interrupt me (even in mid lecture) to ask a question or ask for clarification. 
• As you will soon learn, women’s literature is a controversial field of study.  It is okay to disagree with me or with your fellow students, but you must engage in intellectual debates in ways that are polite and you must keep your mind open to a variety of viewpoints.
• Is it okay to dislike a text we are reading or to openly disagree with an interpretation of a text taught in class (in discussion or in writing), however, you must complete all of the required reading.

Plagiarism Policy:

Plagiarism is a complicated thing:  sometimes students plagiarize material because they simply do not know they are doing so (forgetting to cite paraphrased ideas, for example).  Other times, students consciously plagiarize by downloading an entire paper from the Internet, “borrowing” a paper from a friend, or by copying from a book or cutting and pasting text from the Internet.  Plagiarism will be handled on a case-by-case basis. I can usually tell if it is accidental or purposeful.  If it is an accident, the student will be allowed to rewrite the paper, if it is done on purpose, the student will receive a 0 on the plagiarized assignment and may fail the course.  We will go over this issue in detail in class when we discuss writing assignments.