The University of Maryland at College Park 
                         Department of English
			Feminist Critical Theory
			  ENGLISH 444 - 0101
			     Fall, 1994


Class: TTh 11:00-12:15, SCP 1107
Professor: Marilee Lindemann
Office: SCP 4125; 405-3783
Hours: TTh 1:00-2:00; W 2:00-3:00 and by appointment

Our aims in this course will be both extensive and intensive.  We will 
seek a broad understanding of the historical development of the different 
strands of feminist thought and the range of interpretive possibilities 
it hs opened up, but we will also wrestle in some detail with the 
problems and challenges vexing the discipline as it moves into the 
twenty-first century.  We will examine the roots of feminist literary 
theory in a dream of radical social change, its rising influence on (and 
acceptance/containment within) the academy, and the conflicts and 
contradictions it has embraced, repressed, and endured.  We will consider 
feminism's connections and disconnections with other major critical 
discourses, including psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and cultural 
studies, as well as such emergent fields as gender studies, gay and 
lesbian studies, and queer theory.


TEXTS

Robyn Warhol and Diane Price Herndl, eds., _Feminisms_ (F) 
Linda Kauffman, ed., _American Feminist Thought_ (AFT)
Xerox handouts (X)

ASSIGNMENTS/POLICIES

The work for the course will include an oral presentation tied in with 
readings or topics in the course.  Students interested in similar areas 
may work in pairs or small groups.  Presentations will be 20-30 minutes 
in length and should include bibliography to be "published" to the 
class.  your goal should be to build on the materials covered in readings 
by focusing special attention on a particular issue or critic, by alerting 
us to recent developments or trends in the field, etc.

To help you learn to speak the specialized language of theory, you will 
also write six response papers over the course of the semester.  These 
should be succinct (approx. 2-3 pages) and aimed at identifying key 
issues, terms, and points of consensus and dissensus among the critics 
you are discussing.  Due dates for the response papers are:

	#1:	Tues., Sept. 27
	#2:	Tues., Oct. 11
	#3:	Tues., Oct. 25
	#4:	Tues., Nov. 8
	#5:	Tues., Nov. 22
	#6	Thurs., Dec. 8

Also, a 12-page critical essay will be due Monday, December 12.  Essays 
should focus on a particular issue or problem (i.e., the body, the gaze, 
the law) in feminist theory and use literary or cultural texts as a means 
of elucidating that problem.  _Feminisms_ contains many fine examples of 
this kind of essay.  See, for instance, Jane Tompkins, "Sentimental 
Power" and Gayatri Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of 
Imperialism."

Letter grades will be given on all assignments.  Grades will be 
calculated as follows:

	Attendance/Participation	10 %
	Oral Presentation		20 %
	Response Papers			35 %
	Critical Essay			35 %

Incompletes will only be given in cases of documented emergencies when 
the bulk of the work for the course has been satisfactorily completed.

Please advise the instructor if you have a documented disability that 
needs to be accommodated.

Please familiarize yourself with the university and departmental 
policies on academic dishonesty.  Be aware that submitting the same paper 
in two different courses without the instructor's prior approval is a 
form of academic dishonesty.

		SCHEDULE : Feminist Critical Theory

Sept. 1	   Introductions

     Feminism/Feminist Criticism/Feminist Theory

Sept. 6	   Methods

    Jehlen, "Archimedes and the Paradox of Feminist Criticism" (F)
    Kolodny, "Dancing Through the Minefield" (F)
    Marcus, "Storming the Toolshed" (F)

Sept. 8

    Showalter, "The Female Tradition" (F)
    Gilbert & Gubar, "Infection in the Sentence" (F)

Sept. 13  Canons/Institutions

    Felman, "Women and Madness" (F)
    Sosnoski, "A Mindless Man-driven Theory Machine" (F)
    Michie, "Not One of the Family" (F)

Sept. 15

    Tompkins, "Sentimental Power" (F)
    Robinson, "Treason Our Text" (F)
    Lauter, "Caste, Class, and Canon" (F)

Sept. 20  Reading

    Fetterley, "Introduction" and "Palpable Designs" (F)
    Culler, "Reading as a Woman" (F)

Sept. 22

    Schweickart, "Reading Ourselves" (F)
    Radway, "The Readers and Their Romances" (F)

Sept. 27  The Body/Sexuality

    Rubin, "Thinking Sex" (AFT)
    _Response Paper #1 due in class_

Sept. 29

    All essays under "Body" in (F)

Oct. 4   Psychoanalysis

    Belsey, "Constructing the Subject" (F)
    Irigaray, "Another 'Cause' -- Castration" (F)
    Gallop, "The Father's Seduction" (F)

Oct. 6

    Kristeva, "Women's Time" (F)
    Sedgwick, "Introduction" and "Gender Assymetry" (F)
    Jacobus, "Reading Woman (Reading)" (F)

Oct. 11  Cinema

    Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (F)
    Jeffords, "Masculinity as Excess" (F)
    Smith, "Vas" (F)
    _Response Paper #2 due in class_

Oct. 13

    hooks, "Seductive Sexualities" (AFT)
    Modleski, "Cinema and the Dark Continent" (AFT)

Oct. 18  Critiquing Humanism/Imperialism

    Kaplan, "Pandora's Box"
    Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism" (F)

Oct. 20

    Chow, "It's you and not me" (AFT)
    Minh-ha, "The Language of Nativism" (AFT)

Oct. 25  Ethnicity

    All readings under "Ethnicity" in (F)
    _Response Paper #3 due in class_

Oct. 27

    Willis, "Histories, Communities, and Sometimes Utopia" (F)
    McKay, "Reflections on Black Women Writers" (F)
    Christian, "Trajectories of Self-Definition" (F)
    Anzaldua, "La conciencia de la mestiza" (AFT)

Nov. 1 & 3  Topic Open

    We can pause here, read and discuss a literary text, or pursue a 
    topic chosen by the group.

Nov. 8   Agency/Autobiography

    hooks, "writing autobiography" (F)
    Benstock, "Authorizing the Autobiographical" (F)
    Tompkins, "Me and My Shadow" (F)
    _Response Paper #4 due in class_

Nov. 10

    Harding, "Reinventing Ourselves as Other" (AFT)
    Kauffman, "The Long Goodbye" (AFT)

Nov. 15 Theorizing in the "Real" World

    Treichler, "AIDS, Gender, and Biomedical Discourse" (AFT)
    Davis, "Outcast Mothers and Surrogates" (AFT)

Nov. 17

    MacKinnon, "Reflections on Sex Equality under Law" (AFT)
    Cornell, "Gender, Sex, and Equivalent Rights" (X)

Nov. 22 Workshop Day

    We'll devote this class to catching up and wrapping up discussion and 
    also to discussion of the final projects.  Bring drafts of proposed 
    ideas to class.
    _Reponse Paper #4 due in class_

Nov. 29 Postmodernism

    Haraway, "The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies" (AFT)
    Butler, "Contingent Foundations" (X)

Dec. 1

    Scott, "The Evidence of Experience" (X)
    Flax, "The End of Innocence" (X)
    Singer, "Feminism and Postmodernism" (X)

Dec. 6  Queer Theory and the 21st Century

    Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination" (X)
    de Lauretis, "Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation" (X)
    Case, "Toward a Butch-Femme Aesthetic" (X)
    Garber, "Spare Parts" (X)

Dec. 8

    Harris, "Toward a Lesbian Theory of Performance" (X)
    Zimmerman, "What Has Never Been" (F)
    Zimmerman, "Some Notes on Lesbian Criticism for the Nineties" (X)
    _Response Paper #6 due in class_

Dec. 12

    Final papers due in my office by 4 p.m.