Overview of Readings for The Woman Writer

English 247.0915

The Woman Writer: Her Vision and Her Art

Dr. Phyllis van Slyck

Spring 2014

Tuesday: 11:45-2:00 (E258)

Thursday 11:45-12:45 (E266)

vanph@lagcc.cuny.edu

E103N  x5660

Office Hours:

Tuesday/Thursday: 10:30-11:30 or by appointment

Our BLOG:  http://womanwriter247.blogspot.com

Catalogue Course Description:

This course will explore the unique experience of the woman writer. Studying works written by women from a variety of cultures, races and classes will reveal how being a woman has influenced the woman writer's creative interpretation of the human condition

In our section of The Woman Writer we will read and discuss dramas, poems and short stories by writers from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the United States, including Native American and African American writers. 

We will consider the following themes in a series of thematically grouped stories, poems and plays:

1.   Women’s Ways of Knowing: Glaspell, Trifles
 

2.   Patriarchy and its Challengers: “Desiree’s Baby, “The World’s Greatest Fisherman,” “The   Yellow Wallpaper” and In The Other Room or The Vibrator Play

3.   Gender and Girls: Munro, “Boys and Girls,” Engel, “Green,” and Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

4.   Parents and Children: Olson, “I Stand Here Ironing,” and Walker, “Everyday Use”; “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and  O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “The Lame Shall Enter First”

5.   Possession and Magic; Female Power: Danticat, “1937,” Erdrich, “The World’s Greatest Fisherman” and Saint Marie”; Ferre, “The Youngest Doll”

6.   Language and Identity: Anzaldua, “La conciencia de la mestiza,” and Alvarez, “Bilingual Sestina” and “American Girl”

7.     Race and Identity: Angelou, “Still I Rise” and “Phenomenal Woman”; Hurston, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”; Sapphire, “Breaking Karma #2 and #5” and "She Asks About My Mother"

8.     Aging/Mortality: Mansfield, “Miss Brill” and “A Wagner Matinee” and “The Death of the Moth”

Texts:

You will need to purchase the Course Pak from Neko (basement of B building).  All of the readings for this course are included in the Course Pak.  It will cost about $20-$25, which is a very good deal. You should have the course-pak by our second class.