WS 595 - AUTO/BIOGRAPHY: TELLING WOMEN'S LIVES Professor Susan E. Cayleff Spring 1993 San Diego State University Office: AH 3134 Phone: 594-5943 Books at Aztec Shops; Reader at KB Books (5187 College Ave.) Texts Baez And a Voice to Sing With Barrett Invisible Lives Crow Dog Lakota Woman Cisneros The House on Mango Street Millett The Looney-Bin Trip Hansberry To Be Young, Gifted and Black Hurston I Love Myself (when I am laughing) Freedman Exile in a Promised Land Rivenburgh Alaska on the Threshold Ulrich A Midwife's Tale Reader Yezierska Red Ribbon on a White Horse (excerpts) Agonito & Agonits "Resurrecting History's Forgotten Women: A Case Study from The Cheyenne Indians, Frontiers IV no. 3, 8-17. Miller Three Perspectives on Method: "The Individual Faderman Life" Frontiers IV no. 3 Fall 1979. (re: Doughty lesbians). Duggan Candelaria La Malindie, 1-7 Gonzales "Toward a Feminist Pedagogy", Frontiers V no. 2, 48-52. Brown Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years 1827-1927 (excerpts) Heilburn Writing a Woman's Life Gluck & Patai Women's Words Watson & "Life History" and "Women's Life History" Watson-Francke Runyan "Life Histories" Bateson "Composing a Life" Pers'l. Narr. Group Interpreting Women's Lives Schedule and Readings Jan. 26 Introduction; syllabus; method; grading; group assignments Feb. 2 Theoretical Approaches to Reading and Writing Life Histories: demythologizing & mythologizing; deconstructing and constructing Readings: - Runyan, "Life Histories and Psychobiography" (Reader) - Bateson, Composing a Life (Reader) - Heilburn, Writing a Woman's Life (Reader) - Gluck & Patai, Women's Words (Reader) - Personal Narration Group, Interpreting Women's Lives (Reader) Feb. 9 Using Diaries in Life Histories Readings: - Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale - Brown, Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years (Reader) Feb. 16 Framing a Life: Ethnicity and Social Class: Latinas Readings: - Cisneros, The House on Mango Street - Candelario (Reader) - Gonzalez (Reader) Feb. 23 Making Sense of Self in Uncharted Terrain: Records of "New Journeys" Readings: - Rivenburgh, Alaska on the Threshold - Millett, The Looney-Bin Trip - Watson & Watson-Franke, "Life History..." and Women's Life History" (Reader) Mar. 2 Research reflections: corroborations and digressions in the life of Millett 2 groups (4 students in each) Group 1 research and present material on the life and writing of this author. Highlight similarities, insights, contradictions and omissions. Group 2 locate and read diary entries of four "ordinary" women. Analyze content: silences, voices. Mar. 9 Cultures Within a Dominant "Other" Readings: - Crow Dog, Lakota Woman - Agonito & Agonito, Resurrecting History's Forgotten Women; re: Cheyenne (Reader) ***** One page final individual research proposal due. List personality, era, demographics, hypothetical theses; focus on at least one theoretical piece to help in "framing" the life you're telling. ***** Mar. 16 Cultural Heritage: Boon and Burden: Reclaiming Self through Life Writing: Jewish Women Readings: - Yezierska, Red Ribbon on a White Horse (Reader) - Freedman, Exile in a Promised Land Mar. 23 Group 1: (4 students) Research and analyze Yezierska's life and writings (see Mar. 4 for specific instructions). Group 2: (4 students) Research/analyze life writings of Native American women. How do these women define and "place" themselves in relation to their tribal culture? The (outside) Bellagana culture? Mar. 30 Sources of Empowerment and Inspiration: Creative Women: Crafting a Life Through Writings, and Performance Work Readings: - Hurston, I Love Myself (when I am laughing) Group (4 students) Present research on Hurston's life, writings. ***** SPRING BREAK APRIL 5 - 10 ***** Apr. 13 Sources of Empowerment: Creative Women continued Readings: - Hansberry, To Be Young, Gifted and Black Group (4 students) Analyze race and social class in the performance works of four Black women artists. Apr. 20 Sources of Empowerment: Creative Women (continued) Readings: - Baez, And a Voice to Sing With (continued on page 4) - 4 - Group (4 students) Analyze women's socio/political activism and/or other consciousness; modern era; using autobiographies of women performers; lyrics; analyze their feminist content, heterosexual bias (e.g. Joplin, Ross; and Women's Musicians: Holly Near, Phranc, Christian, Williamson, Dobson, etc. Apr. 27 "Telling a Life": Lesbian Herstory: Defining Self, Community, Family: Redefining Life-Cycle History Readings: - Miller, "Three Perspectives on Method" (Reader) - Faderman (Reader) - Doughty (Reader) - Duggan (Reader) - Barrett, Invisible Lives (pgs. 1-155) May 4 "Telling a Life: (continued) Readings: - Barrett, Invisible Lives (pgs. 156-322) Group (4 students) Conduct four oral history interviews with lesbians. Analyze effects of social class, region, ethnicity, silences, voices, self-definitions, language use, building of a subculture, life-cycle turning points. May 11 Conclusions Final papers due. Tell the life of a woman, famous or non-famous; specify demographics; use 4-5 primary; 4-5 secondary sources to "frame" her life in a cultural context. What do you as biographer highlight? Is it what she highlighted? Why the overlap/dissimilarities? Identify silences; sources of empowerment; questions you would ask to give voice to the silences; larger meaning of her life: did she leave/exert a cultural legacy? What was it? How do your owm beliefs, background, priorities affect your telling (interpretation) of her life? Articulate that which you demythologized/deconstructed vs. what is mythologized/constructed. Papers: maximum 12 pages, double-spaced, typed. Bibliography of sources is additional. Grading: class participation: 20%; groups (in class) presentation: 40% (groups must submit collectively written paper not to exceed 8-10 typed pages); Final research paper: 40%