English 285: Women in Literature
Fall 1998, Dr. Barbara Dixson
In English 285, we’ll look at literature which portrays women and consider the development and effects of our culture’s images of women. Other purposes of the class include reading for pleasure and interest, considering our own lives in light of what we read, and working out ideas in community.
Office and Office Hours
Office: 436 Collins Classroom Center
Telephone: 346-3135
E-mail: bdixson@uwsp.edu
Office hours: Monday, 1-2; Wednesday, 2-4; or by appointment
I hope you’ll feel free to ask for help, ask questions, or just drop by to say hello.
Required Work
Texts
Purchase texts:
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Viking Penguin edition.
Barr, Nevada. A Superior Death. Avon.
Gloss, Molly. The Dazzle of Day. St. Martin’s.
Expect to purchase two other novels, which we will decide about later in the semester.
Text rental:
Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Second edition.
Attendance and Deadlines
Regular class attendance is required. Each unexcused absence beyond two will lower your final grade by half a letter grade. For an absence to be excused, let me know about the illness, personal emergency, or school conflict which caused it. If you have missed a quiz during your absence, and would like to make it up, write a note to me about your thoughts on the reading covered in the quiz. Make-up and approved late work will be accepted if turned in within two class meetings. In order to succeed in this class, you need to meet deadlines and complete all required work.
Grades
Your daily work will comprise about half your grade, while the other half will come from the midterm and final portfolios.
Syllabus
Wednesday, 9-2-98 Introduction
ROMANCE
Friday, 9-4 Read Top Girls, Act I, pp. 2152-79. (I will always expect you to read the introductory material for the authors). Response sheet # 1 is due.
Monday, 9-7 Labor Day holiday
Wednesday, 9-9 Read Top Girls, Act II, pp. 2179-2202. R.s. # 2 is due.
Friday, 9-11 Read the first Chaucer handout. In class, begin Shakespeare literature circles. R.s. # 3 is due. Be sure you know, by the end of class, which e-mail discussion group you’re in, and what your beginning theme, issue, or concern will be.
Monday, 9-14 Read the second Chaucer handout. Literature circles will meet to discuss Shakespeare. This means that you need to have read the Shakespeare which you and your lit circle agreed upon on Friday, and you need to have done a lit circle preparation. R.s. # 4 is due. Reminder: the first posting to the e-mail discussion group is due by Tuesday at midnight.
Wednesday, 9-16 Read the excerpts from Little Women, pp. 945-960. Lit circles will meet again to discuss Shakespeare, so do your lit circle preparation. R.s. # 5 is due.
Friday, 9-18 Literature circles present Shakespeare. R.s. # 6 is due.
Monday, 9-21 Read handouts on radical alternates to traditional marriage roles. R.s. # 7 is due.
Wednesday, 9-23 Read "Town and Country Lovers," pp. 1854-1861, and "Where Lovers Dream," pp. 1372-1379. R.s.# 8 is due.
Friday, 9-25 Read "One Off the Short List," pp. 1811-1829. Literature circles will decide on a novel. R.s. # 9 is due.
Monday, 9-28 Read the first third of Sense and Sensibility. I recommend that you save the introductory material till you’re done reading. R.s. # 10 is due. We will take time to consider how the e-mail discussion groups are going and make needed adjustments.
Wednesday, 9-30 Read the second third of Sense and Sensibility. R.s. # 11 is due.
Friday, 10-2 Complete your reading of Sense and Sensibility. Read either the introductory material in our text, or read the introduction to Jane Austen in the Norton, pp. 328-330. R.s. # 12 is due.
IDENTITY
Monday, 10-5 Read "Tell Me a Riddle," pp. 1701-1728. R.s. # 13 is due. We’ll decide today if it would be a good idea to shuffle the e-mail discussion groups for a new round of on-line talk.
Wednesday, 10-7 Return to "Tell Me a Riddle," and reread the section which you find most significant. Also, read "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, pp.1481-1488 . In class, literature circles will make a selection for Friday. R.s. # 14 is due.
Friday, 10-9 Read the literature circle selection, and do a lit circle preparation. Literature circles will also make plans for reading and discussing the novel each one has chosen. R.s. # 15 is due.
Monday, 10-12 Read "Ain’t I a Woman?", "What Time of Night Is It?", and "Keeping the Thing Going while Things Are Stirring," pp. 369-373; "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," pp. 1498-1501; and "In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens," pp. 2315-2322. R.s. # 16 is due.
Wednesday, 10-14 Read the excerpt from A Room of One’s Own and "Professions for Women," pp. 1338-1348, plus a good sampling of the introductory material on Virginia Woolf. No response sheet due (but expect an in-class). PORTFOLIO IS DUE.
Friday, 10-16 Begin reading the novel chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 17 is due.
Monday, 10-19 Continue reading the novel chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 18 is due.
Wednesday, 10-21 Complete your reading of the novel chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 19 is due.
Friday, 10-23 Read the excerpts from the following journals: Alice James, pp. 996-1003; Dorothy Wordsworth, pp. 318-325; and the handout. R.s.# 20 is due.
Monday, 10-26 Read the handout of essays on women’s relationships to their bodies. Literature circles will meet in class to decide on Friday’s selection. R.s. # 21 is due.
Wednesday, 10-28 Read the handout of a Bobbie Ann Mason short story. R.s. # 22 is due.
Friday, 10-30 Read the literature circle selection—12-18 pages chosen from the first two sections (through p. 283) of the anthology. R.s. # 23 is due.
Monday, 11-2 Read the first third of The Dazzle of Day. R.s. # 24 is due.
Wednesday, 11-4 Read the second third of The Dazzle of Day. R.s. # 25 is due.
Friday, 11-6 Complete your reading of The Dazzle of Day. R.s. # 26 is due.
ACTION: THE HERO
Monday, 11-9 Read "Sur" and "She Unnames Them," pp. 1931-1945. Literature circles will meet to choose reading for Friday. R.s. # 27 is due.
Wednesday, 11-11 Read the excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, pp. 460-465. R.s. # 28 is due.
Friday, 11-13 Read "A Worn Path," pp. 1640-1646. Also, read the selection chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 29 is due.
Monday, 11-16 Read the excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, pp. 1916-1921. Literature circles will meet to choose reading for Friday. R.s. # 30 is due.
Wednesday, 11-18 Read the handout of essays by Bailey White. R.s. # 31 is due.
Friday, 11-20 Read "Sweat," pp. 1490-1498. Also, read the selection chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 32 is due.
Monday, 11-23 Read the handout. Literature circles will meet to choose reading for Wednesday. R.s. # 33 is due.
Wednesday, 11-25 Read the selection chosen by your literature circle. R.s. # 34 is due.
Friday, 11-27 Thanksgiving holiday.
Monday, 11-30 Read the first third of A Superior Death. R.s. # 35 is due.
Wednesday, 12-2 Read the second third of A Superior Death. No response sheet due (but expect an in-class). PORTFOLIO IS DUE.
Friday, 12-4 Complete your reading of A Superior Death. R.s. # 36 is due.
Monday, 12-7, Wednesday, 12-9, Friday, 12-11, and Monday, 12-14: tba Response sheets # 37, 38, 39, and 40 are due.
Response Sheets and Writing Portfolio
Each class day, you will prepare for class by doing the assigned reading and by making a response sheet. The out-of-class response sheet is due at the beginning of class. In class, we may also have an in-class component of the response sheet. The in-class component is easy to explain: it’s a sort of reading quiz, an on-the-spot, closed-book question or questions, designed to be easy for those who’ve read well. But let me explain in more detail about the out-of-class part.
What you’re trying to accomplish:
As you prepare your response sheet, you need to let me see that you have read the assignment thoroughly and thoughtfully. Also, you need to respond with interest or creativity. Aim for some variety in your responses.
Choose a content focus for your response sheet:
Don’t summarize, don’t say everything, don’t bore yourself or me. Instead, choose a content focus. There are many possibilities; here are some I’ve thought of:
*** character commentary
*** your own personal connection to events, themes, characters
*** connections between this and other literature, film, art, or music
*** connections between the reading and its historical / political / social context
*** a look at the overall design of the piece
*** thoughts on point of view
*** passages of interest from a number of places in the text (s), with comments
*** a look at the language of the piece (s)—words, sentences, and / or dialogue
*** a key theme, such as growing up, love, friendship, failure, money, ethnicity, death, heroism, etc.
*** a look at setting
*** a piece of creative writing which responds to the piece you’ve read
*** information (research)about the historical, literary, or thematic context of the reading, plus your comments
Consider different possibilities for form for your response sheet:
I will be excited if you try some different forms. Again, there are lots of possibilities. I’ve thought of these:
*** paragraphs, as usual
*** list and comment
*** parallel listing
*** charts
*** drawn or doodled images, with or without words
*** collage
*** a conversation—If it’s with someone in the class, then you can both turn it in; if it’s with someone not in the class, you have to write it down alone.
Here’s how the process will work:
You turn your response sheet in at the beginning of class each day, and I return it to you at our next meeting. You collect all your response sheets, labeled, in order, in a two-pocket folder. Then you revise four or five of the best pieces for the midterm and for the final portfolios, including at least three of the following four types:
At least one of your revised pieces for each portfolio should be an essay, with a clear sense of purpose and audience, a logical pattern of development, and well constructed paragraphs. The other pieces may be more informal, but should still be lively, purposeful, and well written.
To turn the portfolio in, at midterm and at the end of the semester, have the labeled, ordered response sheets in one pocket of your two-pocket folder. In the other pocket, put your revisions, and top these with a self-evaluation. How good is your work? What does it reveal about your reading process, your understanding of the reading, your personal connections to the reading, and your growth as a reader and writer? At the midterm, also tell me about your sense of direction: what will you continue and what will you revise in your reading and writing process in the weeks remaining?
E-Mail Discussion Group
We will carry on part of our discussion this semester in e-mail discussion groups. By the end of the second week, you will be a member of a small, on-line group. Here are the things you need to do:
I will read entries and record that you’ve done them, but otherwise, I’ll stay out of the discussion. After a few weeks, we will discuss as a class how this is going, and we’ll make adjustments at that time.
Technical information:
To get to the public folders, open your e-mail, and then go to
Public folders
All public folders
Course information
9810--Fall 98
English
PF English 101.20_9810
Then go to your group’s folder: you’ll know it, because your name will be
in the title.
Also, once you’re in your folder, you write a new message by clicking on "compose." If it’s a new train of thought, choose "new post in this folder." If you’re responding to someone else’s e-mail posting, then be sure the posting to which you are responding is highlighted in blue, and choose "compose" and then "post reply to folder." From there, just click on the icon of the thumbtack posting a message up, and that will send your message.