EH 418 WOMEN WRITERS Summer 1989 Dr. Rose Norman Morton Hall, Room 233 University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Al 35899 205/895-6320 Internet: RNorman@ASNUAH.asn.net Bitnet: RNorman@UAHVAX1 NOTE: This was a 3 semester hour course taught in an eight-week summer term. Class met twice a week for 2 1/2 half hours. Course Requirements and Grade Determination 30% - Midterm Exam 10% - Oral Report and Critique (see handout) 20% - Term Paper (see handout) 30% - Final Exam 10% - Miscellaneous (attendance, class participation, term paper proposal) Required Texts Alcott, Louisa May. *Little Women*. 1868-69. Ed. Nina Auerbach. Bantam, 1983. Chopin, Kate. *The Awakening and Selected Stories*. 1899. Ed. Nina Baym. Modern Library, 1981. (***DO NOT** USE THIS EDITION!! SIGNIFICANT TYPOS!) Fetterley, Judith, ed. *Provisions: A Reader from Nineteenth- Century American Women*. Indiana UP, 1985. . Ingalls, Rachel. *Binstead's Safari*. Simon and Schuster, 1983. Morrison, Toni. *Sula*. New American Library, 1973. Wharton, Edith. *The House of Mirth*. 1905. Ed. Cynthia G. Wolff. Penguin (American Library) 1985. Optional Texts (Each students buys one from this list; see term paper instructions.) Alcott, Louisa May. *Alternative Alcott*. Ed. Elaine Showalter. Rutgers, 1988. 455 p. (Selected works. No need to read whole book.) Brent, Linda (pseud. for Harriet Jacobs) *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*. Ed. Lydia M. Child. 1861. Harcourt Brace, 1973. 210 p. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. *The Yellow Wallpaper*. 1892. Feminist Press, 1973, 61 p. Hurston, Zora Neale. *Their Eyes Were Watching God*. 1937. U Illinois Pr, 1978. 296 p. Ingalls, Rachel. *Mrs. Caliban*. Dell, 1983. 125 p. Morrison, Toni. *Song of Solomon*. 1977. New American Library, Signet, 1988. 341 p. Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. *The Silent Partner*. 1871. Feminist Press, 1983. 385 p. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. *Uncle Tom's Cabin*. 1852. Ed. Ann Douglas. Penguin, 1981. 629 p. Wharton, Edith. *The Age of Innocence*. 1920. Scribners, 1970. 361 p. SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS JUNE 17 Introduction to course. Syllabus, reading list, and term paper assignment distributed. 19 Introduction to *Provisions* (pp. 1-38) and in *Provisions* Catharine Sedgwick (1789-1867), "Cacoethes Scribendi" (1830) 21 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1815-52), "Angel Over the Right Shoulder" (1852) Oral report: Mary Kelley's Preface and "No Happy Woman Writes" 23 Rose Terry Cook (1827-92), "Miss Lucinda" (1861) Oral report: Nina Baym's "Form and Ideology of Women's Fiction" 26 Harriet Jacobs (ca.1815-97),*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*(1861) Oral report: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's "To Write My Self" 28 Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910), *Life in the Iron Mills* (1861) Oral report: Tillie Olsen's introduction to *Life in the Iron Mills* 30 Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-6), *The Pearl of Orr's Island* (1862) Oral report: Jane Tompkins' "Sentimental Power" Term Paper Proposals due JULY 3 Alcott, *Little Women* (1868-69) (including Auerbach afterword) Oral report: Auerbach's "Afterword" in assigned text 5 *Little Women* (continued) Oral report: "Little Women" (Chapter 1 of Saxton biography *Louisa May*) 7 *Little Women* (concluded) Oral report: Patricia Meyer Spacks' "Taking Care" on Alcott 10 Mid-term Exam 12 Chopin, *The Awakening* (1899). (Including Baym intro.) Oral report: Nina Baym's "Introduction" to our text 14 *The Awakening* (continued) Oral report: Linda Huf's "Kate Chopin's Crimes Against Society" 17 *The Awakening* (concluded) Oral report: Judith Fryer's "Edna Pontellier: The New Woman as Woman" 19 Wharton, *The House of Mirth* (1905). (Including Wolff intro.) Oral report: Cynthia Griffin Wolff's "Introduction" to our text 21 *The House of Mirth* (continued) Oral report: Patricia Meyer Spacks' "The World Outside" on Wharton 24 *The House of Mirth* (concluded) 26 Morrison, *Sula* (1973) Oral rept: Bettye J. Parker's "Toni Morrison's Women: An Interview Essay" 28 *Sula* (continued) Oral report: Jane S. Bakerman on "Female Initiation in the Novels of Toni Morrison" 31 *Sula* (concluded) Oral report: Barbara Christian on "Community and Nature" in Toni Morrison 2 Ingalls, *Binstead's Safari* (1983) Oral report: TBA 4 *Binstead's Safari* (continued) Oral report: TBA 7 *Binstead's Safari* (concluded) Oral report: TBA 9 Term Papers due Term Paper Assignment Text Restrictions. Choose one book from the optional reading list for comparison with one from the required reading list, paired off as shown in the table at the bottom of this page. Topic Requirements. After reading the two texts, and reading what others have said about them (in class discussion, in oral reports, in editorial introductions to the work, or in authoritative sources), decide what particular aspect of the two works your term project will explore. This can be a theme, a method, a character type, or whatever literary aspects interest you. You can use one text to illuminate the other, or you can balance one text against the other, giving them equal weight. For example, you might use Harriet Jacobs' autobiographical account of slavery to gain a contrasting perspective on Harriet Beecher Stowe's earlier anti- slavery novel *Uncle Tom's Cabin*. Or you could compare two texts by the same author, looking for similar or contrasting treatments of the character or theme. For example, you could compare Jo March in *Little Women* to Christie in Alcott's *Work* (rpt. in *Alternative Alcott*). Deciding to do that would give you a purpose for your term project, something to watch for in reading the texts. Your findings, when your reading and research are complete, will give you a thesis. For example, you might determine that Christie's attitudes toward marriage and domesticity resemble Jo's, but Christie is quickly widowed, and ends up rich with one child (a daughter). You could then examine the relevance of this outcome to Jo's decision to marry Mr. Bhaer instead of Laurie, arguing the thesis that these are alternative versions of the same fantasy about marriage. Proposal Requirement. Once you've done some preliminary reading and have an idea for a project, write a short (1-2 typed pages) description of your purpose in the project. Identify the primary texts you are using (from the lists below), what outside reading you plan to do (if any), and what particular aspect of the two primary texts you want to explore (your purpose). You may also indicate what you expect to find, or, if uncertain about that, indicate the range of possibilities you foresee. For example, in proposing to compare Jo and Christie (in the Alcott example above), you might anticipate that one plot would be more or less "realistic" than the other or that the two represent alternative workings out of the dilemmas Jo faces. These are just guesses and do not commit you to a thesis. The proposal commits you to a purpose, but not to a thesis. Attach a bibliography to demonstrate that you know how to use MLA format (new or old version).