I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Women in Literature

2. Course Prefix & Number:
ENGL 2451

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

4. Course Description:

Although many survey courses now include works by women authors, that has not always been the case. We begin this course by reading Virginia Woolf’s text A Room of One’s Own, which provides a touchstone for our understanding as to why so many women writers are missing, or have been missing, from those survey courses. We will investigate the importance of tradition and history for women writers as we consider how women have been characterized in literature and as we read literature written by women. Genres we will read include a novel, poetry, short stories, expository writing and we will view several films.

5. Placement Tests Required:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

9. Co-requisite Courses:

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

St. Cloud State University, ENGL 2380 Women in Literature, 3 credits
Bemidji State Uniersity, ENGL 493/593 Women in World Literature, 3 credits

III. Course Purpose

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:
Goal 6 – Humanities and Fine Arts

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.  MnTC Goal 6
• Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values with an historical and social context.  MnTC Goal 6
• Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.  MnTC Goal 6
• Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.  MnTC Goal 6
• Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.  
• Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.  
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.  
• Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.  
• Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.  

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Introduction to Women in Literature
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
2. Social Justice Theme
• “Life in the Iron-Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis
• “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros
• “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick
• “How It Feels to Be Forcibly Fed” by Djuna Barnes
3. Relationship Theme
• “Recitaif” by Toni Morrison
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
• Various letters to her husband by Abigail Adams
• Excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
• “My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age” by Grace Paley
• “The Ballad of the Sad Café” by Carson McCullers
• “Two Hanged Women” by Henry Handel Richardson
• “Indissoluble Matrimony” by Rebecca West
• “The Shawl” by Louise Erdrich
4. Women and Creativity Theme
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Trifles by Susan Glaspell
• “Seventeen Syllables” by Hisaye Yamamoto
• “The Disquieting Muses” and “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath
• “The Little Red Hen Tells All” by Margaret Atwood
5. Identity Theme
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by Alice Walker
• “Poets in the Kitchen” by Paule Marshall
• Wit by Margaret Edson
• “The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma’s Incredible Powers” from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
6. Women and Professions
• “Professions for Women” by Virginia Woolf
• “Coming Aphrodite!” by Willa Cather
• Excerpt from “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” by Toni Morrison
7. Poetry
• We will read poetry by Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Rita Dove, Maxine W. Kumin and Elizabeth Bishop, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson.
• We will also read poetry by poets writing in the 17th and 18th centuries such as Anne Finch, Aphra Behn, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Hannah More, Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. Although this is not necessarily a complete list of poets, it represents a fair cross-section of women poets we will read. In addition, we will also consider poetry by male poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth whose influence is evident in the poetry of some of the women poets we will study and who were, in turn, influenced by women poets.
8. Women and Sexuality
• “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Marmon Silko
• “Dream Dancer” and other poems by Joy Harjo
• “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter

Throughout the semester the recurring themes of identity, relationships and social justice will be topics of discussion as we trace the importance of tradition and the history of women writers. We will read authors from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds to help us develop an appreciation for the similarities as well as the differences of women’s experiences.