ENGLISH 108 – WOMEN AND LITERATURE
FALL 2007

Mares – <http://mares.english.sbc.edu> – Fletcher 313 x6238
Office Hours: M Th 4 – 5 p.m. & by appointment
Policies      Papers and Responses

"I want to write a novel about Silence...the things people don't say."  
– from Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out

COURSE TOPIC: "MY FRIEND, MY ENEMY"

COURSE DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES

As Jonathan Culler points out in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, feminism is "less a unified school of criticism than a social and intellectual movement and a space of debate." Directly or indirectly, all the writers we will be reading in this course were (or are) involved with this movement and engaged in this debate. As is true of the best feminist criticism, their writings are full of surprises and risks and often work to unsettle us rather than to confirm our assumptions and expectations.

As the course topic – "My Friend, My Enemy" – suggests, intimacy is a recurrent theme in these works, "how to find it, create it, retrieve it, bestow it" – and also, in some cases, "how it's only longed for, squandered, or lost."* We will approach this theme of intimacy by focusing on how, within these works, gender identities, roles, and relations are enacted, reproduced, and contested.

Juxtaposing novels by three classic women writers from first part of the 20th century (Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, and Nella Larsen) with a novel and short stories by three prominent contemporary writers (Margaret Atwood, Mary Gaitskill, and Jhumpa Lahiri) will highlight their distinctive visions and styles, while it will also prompt us to notice continuities in their concern with gender systems and their intricate interaction with other "identity markers" (such as class, race, age, nationality, sexual orientation) in shaping people's intimate lives.

Because this is a writing-intensive course, it emphasizes critical reading and writing. The goal is to further develop your ability to analyze challenging texts; to express your ideas clearly and coherently; to write eloquent, well-supported arguments; and to effectively edit and revise your work.

(*Adapted from a review by Elisabeth Harvor of Mary Gaitskill's Because They Wanted To. First appeared in The Globe & Mail ©2002 Elisabeth Harvor)

REQUIRED TEXTS
Virginia Woolf, "Professions for Women" (xerox); "The Legacy" (xerox); Mrs. Dalloway
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
Nella Larsen, Passing
Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
Short stories by Mary Gaitskill and Jhumpa Lahiri (xeroxes)
Critical and other background materials (xeroxes)

RECOMMENDED TEXTS
A good dictionary, such as the most recent college edition of the American Heritage Dictionary

HELPFUL WRITING WEBSITES

MLA Style (Via UNC Library)

"Papers: Expectations, Guidelines, Advice, and Grading", J. DeLombard and Dan White

Writing Center Handouts: UNC Chapel Hill

The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.

George Orwell's Handy Word Choice Hints

REQUIREMENTS
•Regular attendance and careful preparation for class

•Contributions to class discussions, including active and thoughtful oral participation, plus 1 to 2-page typed responses to the readings, as assigned. (Responses are to be submitted as a portfolio at end of term.)

•One 4-5 page paper; one 5-6 page paper; and one 6-7 page paper requiring the use of secondary sources and MLA documentation style (multiple drafts may be required); other brief writing assignments, such as peer reviews, abstracts of articles, a proposal for and an abstract of your final paper; a brief presentation based on the abstract of your final paper

EVALUATION
•Approximate breakdown of the final grade, if all work is submitted: 1st paper = 15%; 2nd paper = 20%; third paper = 20%, abstract = 5%; presentation = 10%; portfolio of reading responses = 15%; contributions to class (oral participation, abstracts of articles, peer reviews, possible quizzes, etc.) = 15%. Note that to qualify for a passing grade in this course you have to turn in all of the papers, including any required revisions, and the portfolio of reading responses. (Attendance is also crucial. See Policies.) Also, please note that the abstract of your final paper and the final revision (if one is required) of this paper will be due no later than noon on December 14, the last day of exam week.

•Grades on revised papers will be averaged with grades on the originals, but will be weighted more heavily if the revisions are extensive and effective. Your portfolio of reading responses and the final commentary will be graded as a whole at the end of the term; individual reading responses will not be given letter grades. Instead, I will mark each response with a plus (+) for "Excellent," a check (√ ) for "Good," or a minus (-) for "Unsatisfactory."

•If you are not clear about how to improve your work after carefully reading my comments on your papers, please stop by my office during office hours or make an appointment to see me.

•Students are expected to adhere to the Honor Code in all their work.   Plagiarism, whether accidental or intentional, is a violation of the Honor Code and will be treated with the utmost seriousness.   If you have any questions about how plagiarism is defined, review the relevant sections on pp.25-26 and pp.51-52 in your Student Handbook.   Also, please note that work you completed for other courses, here or elsewhere, may not be submitted for credit in this course. See me if you have questions.  We will discuss plagiarism in some detail in class early on in the semester.

Aug. 27 Introduction
29  Woolf, "Professions for Women" and "The Legacy" (xeroxes); 1-2 pp. typed reading responses (RR) due at the beginning of class

Sept. 3 Mrs. Dalloway (1925) (RR)
5 Mrs. Dalloway (RR)

10 Mrs. Dalloway (RR) [+ excerpts from film version of Mrs. Dalloway]
12 Mrs. Dalloway
Fri., Sept. 14 – Abstracts of Elizabeth Abel or Trudi Tate articles (xeroxes) due by 5 p.m.

17 Workshop. Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920) (RR) - to p. 36
19 The Age of Innocence - to p. 76

[24 No class. - to p. 142. (RR due by 5 p.m., Tuesday)
26 The Age of Innocence - to p. 187. 1st essay (4-5 pp.) due by 5 p.m.
[27 & 28 Reading Days]

0ct. 1 The Age of Innocence - to p. 254. (RR) (Clips from Martin Scorsese's film version).
3 Workshop. The Age of Innocence.

8 Passing (1929) (to p. 47 = the end of PART ONE) (RR)
10 Passing (to p. 81 = the end of PART TWO)
Fri., Oct. 12 – Revised 1st essay due by 5 p.m. Attach previous version with my comments.

15 Passing (to p.114 = the end) + Introduction (vii-xxxiii). (RR)
17 NO CLASS. Special additional office hours for paper consultations during class time.
[Cat's Eye reading: at least up to p. 50, Ch. 9]
Fri., Oct. 19 – 2nd essay (5-6 pp.) due by 5 p.m.

22 Cat's Eye (up to p. 140, Ch. 24) (RR)
24 Cat's Eye (up to p. 214, PART EIGHT)
Thursday, Oct. 25 – Proposals due.

29 Cat's Eye. (up to p. 303, Ch. 50) (RR)
31 Cat's Eye (up to p. 378, Ch. 62) Workshop (peer reviews of 2nd essay).

Nov. 5 Cat's Eye (to the end, p. 462) (RR) + In-class writing: progress report on research paper
7 Gaitskill, "The Blanket"; "The Dentist" (xerox) (RR) + In-class writing on Gaitskill

12 Workshop (abstracts; documentation styles; plagiarism; signal phrases; punctuation with quotations; block quotations). 
14 Gaitskill, "Stuff" (xerox)
Fri., Nov. 16 – 6-7pp. essay due by 5 pm.

26 Workshop. Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter" (xerox) (RR: group A). 2nd Essay revised on basis of peer review due in class.
Attach previous version and peer review.
28 Workshop. Lahiri, "The Third and Final Continent" (xerox) (RR: group B) + discuss presentation guidelines

Dec. 3 Abstracts due in class. Presentations.
(Your abstract will not be accepted if you do not submit it yourself IN CLASS. Exceptions must be arranged beforehand and will be granted ONLY in the case of SERIOUS illness or emergency, verifiable by the Dean's Office.)
5 Presentations (cont.). Portfolio of reading responses due in class. Course evaluations.
(Your portfolio will not be accepted if you do not submit it yourself IN CLASS. Exceptions must be arranged beforehand and will be granted ONLY in the case of SERIOUS illness or emergency, verifiable by the Dean's Office.)

FINAL REVISION (IF REQUIRED) OF FINAL PAPER DUE BY NOON, DEC. 14.
ATTACH PREVIOUS VERSION WITH MY COMMENTS. DO NOT E-MAIL OR FAX YOUR PAPERS TO ME. IF NECESSARY AND IF THEY WILL ARRIVE IN TIME, YOU MAY MAIL THEM TO ME.

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LAST UPDATED: 28 November 2007