EN 845.01 Contemporary American Women Writers (Spring 2008-2009: 3)
Focusing on poetry and fiction written by American women since 1970, this
course will explore representations of race, ethnicity, power, violence,
space and embodiment as well as gender in the works of writers including
Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Jhumpa Lahiri, Lorrie Moore, Nicole Krauss,
Gish Jen, Sharon Olds and others. In approaching each literary text, we
will aim to situate it within the context of contemporary American cultural
tensions and to explore in detail its construction as a work of art. We
will also consider the relationship between gender and other theoretical
categories (including race and ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.) and the
way that changing definitions of gender shape current critical understandings
of women's writing. Although close analysis of literary texts will be our
primary focus, we will also explore a series of critical paradigms for analysis
ranging from the experiential to the theoretical; in our discussions, we
will weigh the significance of acknowledging the constructedness of cultural
categories against the importance of attending to the materiality and specificity
of lived experiences of work, illness, family, childbirth, sexuality, love,
violence and aging. Course requirements will include active participation
in classroom dialogue, an in-class presentation, a short critical essay
and a final seminar paper.
Laura Tanner
Last Updated: 31-MAR-08