Course title: Anglophone Women’s Writing
Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Martina Domines
ECTS credits: 6
Status: elective
Semester: 2nd and 4th semester
Enrollment requirements: enrollment in the 2nd and 4th semester
Course description: The course offers an insight into feminist theories of the 2nd half of the 20th century to the present day on the examples of poetry and prose writing of important Anglophone women writers. The focus will be on the meaning and significance of patriarchy and the changes it brings in the private and public spheres of life. In the first part of the course we will talk about the politics of intimate life and the ethics of care and vulnerability, while in the second part we will focus on the social reproduction theory by reading representative working-class women’s novels in order to understand the connection between economic exploitation and social vs. private oppression of women in the contemporary capitalist society.
Objectives: To acquaint the students with the foundations of feminist literary theories and to show the role and evolution of patriarchy by using chosen works of Anglophone women writers.
Course requirements: the final grade is based on continuous assessment which includes regular attendance (max. absences allowed: 4), preparation for class, in-class participation, writing small assignments, obligatory sitting for midterm exam and timely submission of the final paper. The paper is worth 35%, midterm exam 40% and other elements of continuous assessment are worth 25% of the final grade. Students must fulfill all elements of continuous assessment.
Week by week schedule
Week 1: Women and literary history (excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf)
Week 2: Introduction to feminist literary theories of the 20th and 21st centuries (excerpts from Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millett, Elaine Showalter, S. Gilbert & S. Gubar)
Week 3: Patriarchy, nuclear family, motherhood: Virginia Woolf ‘To the Lighthouse’ (1927)
Week 4: Woolf continued
Week 5: Female body: Sylvia Plath ‘Ariel’ (1965); Louise Glück ‘ Descending Figure’ (1980) & Carol Ann Duffy ‘The World’s Wife’ (1999)
Week 6: Canon re-inscription: Emma Donoghue ‘Kissing the Witch’ (1997)
Week 7: Mid-term exam
Week 8: Feminism and social reproduction theory (chosen texts by Lise Vogel, Nancy Fraser and Tithi Bhattacharya)
Week 9: Ethel Carnie Holdsworth ‘This Slavery’ (1925)
Week 10: Holdsworth continued
Week 11: Jeanette Winterson ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ (1985)
Week 12: Winterson continued
Week 13: Kerry Hudson ‘Lowborn’ (2019)
Week 14: Wrap-up discussion and instructions for seminar papers
Week 15: End-term exam
Reading list:
Primary sources:
Virginia Woolf: ‘To the Lighthouse’ (1927)
Zbirke poezije: Sylvia Plath ‘Ariel’ (1965); Louise Glück ‘Descending Figure’ (1980); Carol Ann Duffy ‘The World’s Wife’ (1999)
Emma Donoghue ‘Kissing the Witch’ (1997)
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth ‘This Slavery’ (1925)
Jeanette Winterson ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ (1985)
Kerry Hudson ‘Lowborn’ (2019)
Secondary sources:
Belsey, Catherine & Jane Moore. ‘The Feminist Reader’, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1989
Finke, Laurie A.. ‘Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing’, Ithaca, London: Cornell UP, 1992
Roberts, Helen (ed.). ‘Doing Feminist Research’, London, New York: Routledge, 1992
Rooney, Ellen (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Literary Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006
De Beauvoir, Simone. ‘The Second Sex’, London: Vintage, 1997
Woolf, Virginia. ‘A Room of One’s Own’, London: Penguin Books, 2000
Butscher, Edward. ‘Sylvia Plath: Method & Madness’, Tucson: Schaffner Press, 2003
Smyth, Ailbhe. ‘Irish Women Studies Reader’, Dublin: Ahic Press, 1993
Russo, John & Sherry Lee Linkon (ed.) ‘New Working-Class Studies’, London: ILP Press, 2005
Goodridge, John & Bridget Keegan (ed.) ‘A History of British Working-Class Literature’, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2017
Bhattacharya, Tithi (ed.) ‘ A Social Reproduction Theory’, London: Pluto Press, 2017
Aruzza, Cinzia, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser. ‘Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto’, London & New York: Verso, 2019