English 497/597 -- Women and Literature: International Voices

Spring Term 2009: MWF 12:00 - 12:50
Instructor: Dr. Laura Rice
Office: Moreland 340
Office Hours: MWF 16:00-16:50pm, other times by appointment
Phone: 737-1656
Email: lrice@oregonstate.edu

This course meets the Bac Core Synthesis category in Contemporary Global Issues

Course Description:

The question of form:

Women's writing often makes us question the boundaries and assumptions of traditional forms--the novel, autobiography, essay. The relationship between genre and gender breeds dislocations--and doubly so when the writers in question come from diverse cultures. In this course, we will look at the ways women writers have interrogated form as they struggle to express their worlds and understand those of others. The works we will study explore various ways of relating women's lives: autobiographical memoirs, pseudo-autobiographical fictional memoir, poetic autobiography, fictional life stories of a community of women, and the untold autobiography of a fictional character. These forms of life writing defy the conventional forms of life writing associated with male writers.

The question of gender:

In what ways might we see individual voices as linked to a collective past? How does that collective, social, gendered past shape one's individual identity? Does gender cross cultural boundaries in such a way that "gender" is a viable category--despite its ambiguous nature? The texts we will be reading juxtapose the voices of women writing from a variety of geographic and ethnic backgrounds. These authors struggle with the issue of identity for women, but in vastly different contexts; the common thread among these texts is that they were all written as responses to women's condition in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as globalization began to dominate international relations. We will look at texts from the 1960s to the present.

Texts

Fatima Mernissi	Dreams of Trespass	Addison-Wesley
Mohja Kahf	Emails from Scheherazad	University of Florida Press
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye	The Present Moment	Feminist Press
Maxine Hong Kingston	Woman Warrior	Random
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim	Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands	Feminist Press
Jean Rhys,	Wide SargassoSea	Norton
On Reserve	Husain Haddawy's translation of the "Prologue" to Arabian Nights	Valley Library

Contemporary Global Issues

International Women's Voices fulfills the Baccalaureate Core requirement in "Contemporary Global Issues" which shall:

Be upper division and at least 3 credits
Emphasize elements of critical thinking
Focus, from a historical perspective, on the origin and nature of critical issues and problems that have global significance
Emphasize the interdependence of the global community
Use a multidisciplinary approach and be suitable for students from diverse fields
Include written composition

Global Issues Rationale: "Our world has become increasingly interdependent. Social, economic, political, environmental, and other issues and problems originating in one part of the world often have far-reaching ramifications in other parts of the world. These issues and problems not only transcend geographical boundaries but also cross academic disciplines. Therefore, if students are to acquire understanding of and to discover effective responses to such issues and problems, they must acquire both global and multidisciplinary perspectives. (Students are encouraged to complete their baccalaureate core perspective requirements before taking the Contemporary Global Issues course.)"

Course Outcomes

Students will be expected to develop:

An understanding of culturally different ways of defining the concept of identity
An awareness of gender as a changing and context-specific concept
An appreciation of different forms of feminism, both within and across cultural lines
An ability to frame reading and research perspectives so that extra-literary issues of class, race, and history are factored into one's understanding of a particular text
An ability to recognize the different styles, cultural myths and author-text-audience relationships that come into play in the creation of fictional texts and life writing

These outcomes concern developmental skills rather than all-inclusive mastery of the field; that is, at the end of the course, you should have learned new ways of asking questions about and understanding women's literature, ways that provide you a framework for understanding and an intellectual access to a field that is vast, culturally varied and historically specific.

Course Requirements

Class participation is important. You will be asked to do both formal and informal writing for this course. In addition to occasional quizzes, as we read different texts, you are likely to be asked to respond in class in writing to a question about the texts we are reading; in addition, you will occasionally be asked to write short out of class responses to material on women and global issues. Formal writing will be graded and will consist of a take home midterm examination, and a longer research paper at the end of the term. Graduate students will be expected to do more extended papers (10-12 pages) than undergraduates (6-8 pages).

Attendance Policy: This class is set up to include significant and structured student participation. Students can expect regular unannounced quizzes covering the material. Students may be asked to do short writing assignments both in and out of class. Participation is a central expectation for the course, so attendance is important. Because class attendance is part of class participation, excessive absences will be penalized: each absence over 3 will lower your grade by one letter; more than 6 absences will result in failure. If you use your absences, do so wisely. Exceptions will not be made if you have used your absences and then have emergencies requiring additional absences.

Tardiness: Please be on time for class. If you are late, it is your responsibility to see that you are not counted absent (more than 15 minutes late will count as an absence).

Learner Expectations:

Come to class on time and stay the entire class period
Complete reading and homework assignments by the date indicated
Participate in class discussions and activities

Course Policies

Makeup work will be given for excused absences only, and at the discretion of the instructor.
When contacting the instructor by email, please put ENG 497 or ENG 597 first on the subject line.
Cheating and plagiarism by students is subject to the disciplinary process outlined in the Student Conduct Regulations. (See http://www.orst.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm)
Statement Regarding Students with Disabilities. Accommodations are collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Students with accommodations approved through SSD are responsible for contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through SSD should contact SSD immediately at 737-4098.