Professor Dupree told me that she was contemplating the support women exchange with other women and the strategies they use to undermine other women when she first chose books for this curriculum (Dupree, personal communication, November 24, 2009).
She seems to have settled, in the syllabus (January 19, 2010), to the more abstract and academic topic - women contributions to genre. The books continue to include her initial exploration and open discussion about woman's dependency on other women as we are all dependent on vast networks with alternative priorities.
But we may loose a bit of time digging for these relationships; the statement "we'll discuss the discourses about gender" generalizes and risks creating an archetypal discussion about men and women (Dupree, 2010, Course Description). As a class, we should overcome the barrier to explore person to person networks in the novels. As individuals, we rely on support and mitigate efforts to undermine our goals. These women authors provide narrative among give and take. We can analyze the structure of the novel's relationships to give more to one another than the syllabus alone demands.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course in fiction by American women is based on genres that have for various reasons been important to women writers: the domestic novel, the women's Bildungsroman, the short story collection on a particular subject, and the story cycle. In presenting these genres, with the exception of the Bildungsroman, I've paired a nineteenth or early twentieth-century example with a more recent one, which will allow us to consider why women were first attracted to the genre and how this interest has evolved in our own time. After learning about the history of the Bildungsroman, we'll look at two innovative adaptations by contemporary ethnic women writers. As we read all the paired works, we'll discuss the discourses about gender we discover in them, and attempt to understand how women have made these genres their own.
Women and Literature Exchange
Women create and define the worlds they inhabit with characteristics less explored than male histories but no set of presumptions define the variance. The Literature by Women blog provides a sounding board to enable voices among University of Nevada class ENG 427A, sect. 2: Women and Literature. Spring 2010.
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