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Academic Year/course: 2021/22

3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities

23535 - Gender Studies


Teaching Guide Information

Academic Course:
2021/22
Academic Center:
335 - Faculty of Humanities
Study:
3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities
Subject:
23535 - Gender Studies
Credits:
4.0
Course:
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 4
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 3
669 - Minor in Gender Studies: 1
677 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Literatura: 1
681 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics en Història: 1
676 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics d'Art: 1
678 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Pensament: 1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Seminar: Group 101: English
Group 102: English
Teachers:
Maria Antonia Oliver Rotger
Teaching Period:
Third Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

"Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" deals with some of the recurrent topics literature written by women in the English language in the light of the main concerns of gender studies, such as gender identity as a cultural construction, gender relations as relations of power, and gender and sexual difference as a means of self-affirmation and transgression. The course will be structured around topics including (1) the difficulty of finding one’s own voice as a woman and as a writer in a male literary world, (2) writing about the female body and female desire, and transcending the female body (3) rethinking and rewriting the maternal and (4) feminism, resistance and transformation. 

(Please  note: Under the generic title of "Gender Studies" the course enables a flexible approach from a humanistic perspective that may be adapted to different disciplines. This perspective will vary depending on the professor's area of expertise and interest. "Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" addresses crucial concerns of feminist theory and gender studies applied to the study of selected writings by women)

Associated skills

  • Developing an understanding of the factors that contribute to the differing images of women in literature and demonstrate this understanding through class discussions and the written tasks required for the course.
  • Obtaining and displaying a knowledge of various literary terms as they relate selected literature by effectively applying such terms in class discussions and in written discourse.
  • Assessing the style, theme, properties, and effectiveness of literary works focusing on women, by participating in group discussions, writing a reading journal, and writing analytical papers on selected works.
  • Contextualizing women’s literary works and applying a critical approach to literary pieces in assigned papers.
  • Becoming familiar with some of the most significant theories on women’s literature to be able to propose sound interpretations of the texts.
  • Developing an aesthetic appreciation for women’s literature by means of individual reading, in-class discussion and written analysis.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to:

  • identify some of the main topics in women’s literature in English that concern gender studies   
  • detect myths and representations of womanhood and women’s responses to those myths and representations and to other cultural impulses
  • demonstrate a familiarity with some basic concepts of feminist theories 
  • apply those concepts and others to good analytical argument about a text or texts 
  • read any text critically in the light of gender power relations

Prerequisites

Students' responsibilities and academic performance: 

  • This course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least a solid B1 level of the CEFRL
  • They also have the obligation to keep up with the program and contents of the Aula Global, as well as with any notifications posted by their instructor, as the schedule may change slightly.
  • Students are expected to read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes.
  • Students are also expected to actively participate in class forums and also in in-house sessions (in-house sessions to be confirmed following UPF Covid-19 safety measures). They need not justify occasional absences; they should make sure they keep themselves updated on what has been done in class.
  • Students should look at the official exam calendar before making any holiday or travel plans. Make-up exams will only be given in very exceptional cases, and never in case of holiday or travel plans.
  • Please use the question-and-answer forum and in-house sessions to ask questions and discuss any aspect of the course with me and with your classmates.
  • Please do not overuse email. Assignments, course mechanics and course information will be published through Aula Global. A forum will be used for course-related questions. Use email only if your instructor tells you to do so, or in exceptional cases as in emergencies or prolonged absences for medical reasons.  
  • Plagiarism is severely penalized and will result in a "fail" in the whole course in any instance.

Assignments, exam, and participation:

  • Students should look at the presentation calendar, follow the presentation instructions, and be ready to present on the date assigned to them.
  • Those students who have not passed or have not handed in the creative project within the deadline, will not be able to hand it in again.
  • To pass the subject students must get a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Students who have taken the final exam will be able to go to the remedial exam. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and, like the final exam, will add up to the final project grade
  • Students who have not turned in the creative project by the due date will obtain a maximum grade of 7 (notable) in the subject.

 

 

Contents

This is a tentative syllabus. The units may stay the same but the literary texts chosen may change from year to year.

UNIT 1.  Key concepts. Gender as cultural construction.  This unit will address key concepts for the analysis of literature from a feminist perspective (female, feminine, feminist);  it will also look at gender as a cultural/linguistic construction by looking at Judith Butler's theories on performativity and applying them to the analysis of short texts.

UNIT 2. Engendering language, silence and voice. This unit addresses what it means for a woman to find her own voice both as a woman and as a writer. Virginia Woolf’s work A Room of One’s Own will be used to introduce some of the issues later addressed by feminist literary criticism. Since this is a fundamental text. make sure you start reading it before the course begins

 UNIT 3.  Writing bodies/ Bodies writing. We will read at least one essay on the topic by a feminist theorist and then look at several approaches to the body and desire that women writers have inscribed through the ages: desire unfulfilled, bodies exploited, bodies celebrated, and desire transformed.

 UNIT 4.  Rethinking the maternal. This unit explores the anger ambivalence, and affirmation with which women have written about motherhood and considers the ways in which works written from a mother’s perspective differ from those written from a daughter’s. In addition, it discusses essentialist views of mothers, special issues for racial-ethnic mothers, “motherhood as experience and institution,” and women’s redefinitions of the maternal.

 UNIT 5. Feminism, resistance and transformation. In this unit we will define resistance literature and relate it to ideas and metaphors of transformation, while offering a view of women’s literature that challenges patriarchal, racial and class oppression. We will look at the social and political issues (labor rights, immigration, the environment, technology) that women have incorporated in their works from an approach that brings together race, class, gender and cultural difference.

Teaching Methods

The course combines teaching (lectures, ppts) and in-class discussion (or forums, to be confirmed following the UPF Covid-safety measures). The course guarantees a minimum of 70% in-house lectures. Online activities will not exceed 30% of the course. 

Students’ participation is a critical component of the course. 

The course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason, it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages​​. It is also important that students read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes. The approach to the course, though based mainly on texts, will be multidisciplinary and therefore will make forays into the fields of cinema and visual arts.

If the situation demands it and classes need to be online, please make yourself visible when I call the roster and when you participate or present. 

 

Evaluation

The evaluation of the course consists of a final exam (50%), a participation mark (20%) and a creative project (30%) that will consist in creatively re-writing and re-interpreting one of the texts read in class.

Please note:

  • In order to pass the course you must obtain a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Sudents who do not come to class, do not participate but submit their final project and pass the exam, may obtain a maximum grade of 8.
  • Students who do not submit their paper by the deadline will not be able to resubmit their project. In their case, their final mark will be based entirely on the result of the final exam, which will be comprehensive, and in which they will obtain a maximum grade of 7. 
  • Students who fail the final exam will have a make-up exam during the following quarter. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and will be 70% of the final mark.
  • In order to take the remedial exam you have to have submitted at least a piece of work for evaluation. The work done during the course will be 30% of the final mark. 
  • Students must obtain a mininum of 5 in the remedial exam in order to pass the course.

Bibliography and information resources

Obligatory readings:

  1. Materials in Aula Global
  2. Two additional books that you will have to purchase and that will be announced at the beginning of the course.

Other recommended sources:

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1987.

Belsey, Catherine and Moore, Jane, ed. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Basil Blackwell, 1989, New York.

Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions. Continuum, 2000, London, New York.

Felski, Rita. Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change. Harvard University Press, 1989, Cambridge Mass.

Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan, ed. Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism A Norton Reader. Norton, 2007, New York & London.

Goodman, Robin Truth. The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st Century Feminist Theory. Bloomsbury, 2018, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi, Sydney. 

Hooks, Bell.  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. South End Press, 2000, MA.

Jackson, Stevi & Jones, Jackie.  Contemporary Feminist Theories. Edinburgh University Press, 1998, UK.

Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. University of Illinois Press, 2000, Chicago. 

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann & Torres, Lourdes eds. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.  Indiana University Press, 1991, Bloomington. 

Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. Routledge, 1985, London & New York.

Nicholson, J. Linda ed.  Feminism/ Postmodernism. Routledge, 1990, New York.

Warhol, Robyn R. & Herndl, Diane Price, ed. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Rutgers University Press, 1997, New Brunswick, New Jersey. 


Academic Year/course: 2021/22

3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities

23535 - Gender Studies


Informació de la Guia Docent

Academic Course:
2021/22
Academic Center:
335 - Faculty of Humanities
Study:
3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities
Subject:
23535 - Gender Studies
Credits:
4.0
Course:
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 4
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 3
669 - Minor in Gender Studies: 1
677 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Literatura: 1
681 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics en Història: 1
676 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics d'Art: 1
678 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Pensament: 1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Seminar: Group 101: English
Group 102: English
Teachers:
Maria Antonia Oliver Rotger
Teaching Period:
Third Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

"Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" deals with some of the recurrent topics literature written by women in the English language in the light of the main concerns of gender studies, such as gender identity as a cultural construction, gender relations as relations of power, and gender and sexual difference as a means of self-affirmation and transgression. The course will be structured around topics including (1) the difficulty of finding one’s own voice as a woman and as a writer in a male literary world, (2) writing about the female body and female desire, and transcending the female body (3) rethinking and rewriting the maternal and (4) feminism, resistance and transformation. 

(Please  note: Under the generic title of "Gender Studies" the course enables a flexible approach from a humanistic perspective that may be adapted to different disciplines. This perspective will vary depending on the professor's area of expertise and interest. "Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" addresses crucial concerns of feminist theory and gender studies applied to the study of selected writings by women)

Associated skills

  • Developing an understanding of the factors that contribute to the differing images of women in literature and demonstrate this understanding through class discussions and the written tasks required for the course.
  • Obtaining and displaying a knowledge of various literary terms as they relate selected literature by effectively applying such terms in class discussions and in written discourse.
  • Assessing the style, theme, properties, and effectiveness of literary works focusing on women, by participating in group discussions, writing a reading journal, and writing analytical papers on selected works.
  • Contextualizing women’s literary works and applying a critical approach to literary pieces in assigned papers.
  • Becoming familiar with some of the most significant theories on women’s literature to be able to propose sound interpretations of the texts.
  • Developing an aesthetic appreciation for women’s literature by means of individual reading, in-class discussion and written analysis.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to:

  • identify some of the main topics in women’s literature in English that concern gender studies   
  • detect myths and representations of womanhood and women’s responses to those myths and representations and to other cultural impulses
  • demonstrate a familiarity with some basic concepts of feminist theories 
  • apply those concepts and others to good analytical argument about a text or texts 
  • read any text critically in the light of gender power relations

Prerequisites

Students' responsibilities and academic performance: 

  • This course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least a solid B1 level of the CEFRL
  • They also have the obligation to keep up with the program and contents of the Aula Global, as well as with any notifications posted by their instructor, as the schedule may change slightly.
  • Students are expected to read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes.
  • Students are also expected to actively participate in class forums and also in in-house sessions (in-house sessions to be confirmed following UPF Covid-19 safety measures). They need not justify occasional absences; they should make sure they keep themselves updated on what has been done in class.
  • Students should look at the official exam calendar before making any holiday or travel plans. Make-up exams will only be given in very exceptional cases, and never in case of holiday or travel plans.
  • Please use the question-and-answer forum and in-house sessions to ask questions and discuss any aspect of the course with me and with your classmates.
  • Please do not overuse email. Assignments, course mechanics and course information will be published through Aula Global. A forum will be used for course-related questions. Use email only if your instructor tells you to do so, or in exceptional cases as in emergencies or prolonged absences for medical reasons.  
  • Plagiarism is severely penalized and will result in a "fail" in the whole course in any instance.

Assignments, exam, and participation:

  • Students should look at the presentation calendar, follow the presentation instructions, and be ready to present on the date assigned to them.
  • Those students who have not passed or have not handed in the creative project within the deadline, will not be able to hand it in again.
  • To pass the subject students must get a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Students who have taken the final exam will be able to go to the remedial exam. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and, like the final exam, will add up to the final project grade
  • Students who have not turned in the creative project by the due date will obtain a maximum grade of 7 (notable) in the subject.

 

 

Contents

This is a tentative syllabus. The units may stay the same but the literary texts chosen may change from year to year.

UNIT 1.  Key concepts. Gender as cultural construction.  This unit will address key concepts for the analysis of literature from a feminist perspective (female, feminine, feminist);  it will also look at gender as a cultural/linguistic construction by looking at Judith Butler's theories on performativity and applying them to the analysis of short texts.

UNIT 2. Engendering language, silence and voice. This unit addresses what it means for a woman to find her own voice both as a woman and as a writer. Virginia Woolf’s work A Room of One’s Own will be used to introduce some of the issues later addressed by feminist literary criticism. Since this is a fundamental text. make sure you start reading it before the course begins

 UNIT 3.  Writing bodies/ Bodies writing. We will read at least one essay on the topic by a feminist theorist and then look at several approaches to the body and desire that women writers have inscribed through the ages: desire unfulfilled, bodies exploited, bodies celebrated, and desire transformed.

 UNIT 4.  Rethinking the maternal. This unit explores the anger ambivalence, and affirmation with which women have written about motherhood and considers the ways in which works written from a mother’s perspective differ from those written from a daughter’s. In addition, it discusses essentialist views of mothers, special issues for racial-ethnic mothers, “motherhood as experience and institution,” and women’s redefinitions of the maternal.

 UNIT 5. Feminism, resistance and transformation. In this unit we will define resistance literature and relate it to ideas and metaphors of transformation, while offering a view of women’s literature that challenges patriarchal, racial and class oppression. We will look at the social and political issues (labor rights, immigration, the environment, technology) that women have incorporated in their works from an approach that brings together race, class, gender and cultural difference.

Teaching Methods

The course combines teaching (lectures, ppts) and in-class discussion (or forums, to be confirmed following the UPF Covid-safety measures). The course guarantees a minimum of 70% in-house lectures. Online activities will not exceed 30% of the course. 

Students’ participation is a critical component of the course. 

The course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason, it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages​​. It is also important that students read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes. The approach to the course, though based mainly on texts, will be multidisciplinary and therefore will make forays into the fields of cinema and visual arts.

If the situation demands it and classes need to be online, please make yourself visible when I call the roster and when you participate or present. 

 

Evaluation

The evaluation of the course consists of a final exam (50%), a participation mark (20%) and a creative project (30%) that will consist in creatively re-writing and re-interpreting one of the texts read in class.

Please note:

  • In order to pass the course you must obtain a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Sudents who do not come to class, do not participate but submit their final project and pass the exam, may obtain a maximum grade of 8.
  • Students who do not submit their paper by the deadline will not be able to resubmit their project. In their case, their final mark will be based entirely on the result of the final exam, which will be comprehensive, and in which they will obtain a maximum grade of 7. 
  • Students who fail the final exam will have a make-up exam during the following quarter. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and will be 70% of the final mark.
  • In order to take the remedial exam you have to have submitted at least a piece of work for evaluation. The work done during the course will be 30% of the final mark. 
  • Students must obtain a mininum of 5 in the remedial exam in order to pass the course.

Bibliography and information resources

Obligatory readings:

  1. Materials in Aula Global
  2. Two additional books that you will have to purchase and that will be announced at the beginning of the course.

Other recommended sources:

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1987.

Belsey, Catherine and Moore, Jane, ed. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Basil Blackwell, 1989, New York.

Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions. Continuum, 2000, London, New York.

Felski, Rita. Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change. Harvard University Press, 1989, Cambridge Mass.

Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan, ed. Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism A Norton Reader. Norton, 2007, New York & London.

Goodman, Robin Truth. The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st Century Feminist Theory. Bloomsbury, 2018, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi, Sydney. 

Hooks, Bell.  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. South End Press, 2000, MA.

Jackson, Stevi & Jones, Jackie.  Contemporary Feminist Theories. Edinburgh University Press, 1998, UK.

Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. University of Illinois Press, 2000, Chicago. 

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann & Torres, Lourdes eds. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.  Indiana University Press, 1991, Bloomington. 

Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. Routledge, 1985, London & New York.

Nicholson, J. Linda ed.  Feminism/ Postmodernism. Routledge, 1990, New York.

Warhol, Robyn R. & Herndl, Diane Price, ed. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Rutgers University Press, 1997, New Brunswick, New Jersey. 


Academic Year/course: 2021/22

3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities

23535 - Gender Studies


Información de la Guía Docente

Academic Course:
2021/22
Academic Center:
335 - Faculty of Humanities
Study:
3353 - Bachelor's degree in Humanities
Subject:
23535 - Gender Studies
Credits:
4.0
Course:
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 4
598 - Bachelor's degree programme in Humanities: 3
669 - Minor in Gender Studies: 1
677 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Literatura: 1
681 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics en Història: 1
676 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics d'Art: 1
678 - Mínor en Estudis Humanístics de Pensament: 1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Seminar: Group 101: English
Group 102: English
Teachers:
Maria Antonia Oliver Rotger
Teaching Period:
Third Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

"Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" deals with some of the recurrent topics literature written by women in the English language in the light of the main concerns of gender studies, such as gender identity as a cultural construction, gender relations as relations of power, and gender and sexual difference as a means of self-affirmation and transgression. The course will be structured around topics including (1) the difficulty of finding one’s own voice as a woman and as a writer in a male literary world, (2) writing about the female body and female desire, and transcending the female body (3) rethinking and rewriting the maternal and (4) feminism, resistance and transformation. 

(Please  note: Under the generic title of "Gender Studies" the course enables a flexible approach from a humanistic perspective that may be adapted to different disciplines. This perspective will vary depending on the professor's area of expertise and interest. "Gender Studies: Women's Literature in English" addresses crucial concerns of feminist theory and gender studies applied to the study of selected writings by women)

Associated skills

  • Developing an understanding of the factors that contribute to the differing images of women in literature and demonstrate this understanding through class discussions and the written tasks required for the course.
  • Obtaining and displaying a knowledge of various literary terms as they relate selected literature by effectively applying such terms in class discussions and in written discourse.
  • Assessing the style, theme, properties, and effectiveness of literary works focusing on women, by participating in group discussions, writing a reading journal, and writing analytical papers on selected works.
  • Contextualizing women’s literary works and applying a critical approach to literary pieces in assigned papers.
  • Becoming familiar with some of the most significant theories on women’s literature to be able to propose sound interpretations of the texts.
  • Developing an aesthetic appreciation for women’s literature by means of individual reading, in-class discussion and written analysis.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to:

  • identify some of the main topics in women’s literature in English that concern gender studies   
  • detect myths and representations of womanhood and women’s responses to those myths and representations and to other cultural impulses
  • demonstrate a familiarity with some basic concepts of feminist theories 
  • apply those concepts and others to good analytical argument about a text or texts 
  • read any text critically in the light of gender power relations

Prerequisites

Students' responsibilities and academic performance: 

  • This course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least a solid B1 level of the CEFRL
  • They also have the obligation to keep up with the program and contents of the Aula Global, as well as with any notifications posted by their instructor, as the schedule may change slightly.
  • Students are expected to read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes.
  • Students are also expected to actively participate in class forums and also in in-house sessions (in-house sessions to be confirmed following UPF Covid-19 safety measures). They need not justify occasional absences; they should make sure they keep themselves updated on what has been done in class.
  • Students should look at the official exam calendar before making any holiday or travel plans. Make-up exams will only be given in very exceptional cases, and never in case of holiday or travel plans.
  • Please use the question-and-answer forum and in-house sessions to ask questions and discuss any aspect of the course with me and with your classmates.
  • Please do not overuse email. Assignments, course mechanics and course information will be published through Aula Global. A forum will be used for course-related questions. Use email only if your instructor tells you to do so, or in exceptional cases as in emergencies or prolonged absences for medical reasons.  
  • Plagiarism is severely penalized and will result in a "fail" in the whole course in any instance.

Assignments, exam, and participation:

  • Students should look at the presentation calendar, follow the presentation instructions, and be ready to present on the date assigned to them.
  • Those students who have not passed or have not handed in the creative project within the deadline, will not be able to hand it in again.
  • To pass the subject students must get a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Students who have taken the final exam will be able to go to the remedial exam. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and, like the final exam, will add up to the final project grade
  • Students who have not turned in the creative project by the due date will obtain a maximum grade of 7 (notable) in the subject.

 

 

Contents

This is a tentative syllabus. The units may stay the same but the literary texts chosen may change from year to year.

UNIT 1.  Key concepts. Gender as cultural construction.  This unit will address key concepts for the analysis of literature from a feminist perspective (female, feminine, feminist);  it will also look at gender as a cultural/linguistic construction by looking at Judith Butler's theories on performativity and applying them to the analysis of short texts.

UNIT 2. Engendering language, silence and voice. This unit addresses what it means for a woman to find her own voice both as a woman and as a writer. Virginia Woolf’s work A Room of One’s Own will be used to introduce some of the issues later addressed by feminist literary criticism. Since this is a fundamental text. make sure you start reading it before the course begins

 UNIT 3.  Writing bodies/ Bodies writing. We will read at least one essay on the topic by a feminist theorist and then look at several approaches to the body and desire that women writers have inscribed through the ages: desire unfulfilled, bodies exploited, bodies celebrated, and desire transformed.

 UNIT 4.  Rethinking the maternal. This unit explores the anger ambivalence, and affirmation with which women have written about motherhood and considers the ways in which works written from a mother’s perspective differ from those written from a daughter’s. In addition, it discusses essentialist views of mothers, special issues for racial-ethnic mothers, “motherhood as experience and institution,” and women’s redefinitions of the maternal.

 UNIT 5. Feminism, resistance and transformation. In this unit we will define resistance literature and relate it to ideas and metaphors of transformation, while offering a view of women’s literature that challenges patriarchal, racial and class oppression. We will look at the social and political issues (labor rights, immigration, the environment, technology) that women have incorporated in their works from an approach that brings together race, class, gender and cultural difference.

Teaching Methods

The course combines teaching (lectures, ppts) and in-class discussion (or forums, to be confirmed following the UPF Covid-safety measures). The course guarantees a minimum of 70% in-house lectures. Online activities will not exceed 30% of the course. 

Students’ participation is a critical component of the course. 

The course is taught in English and follows a communicative methodology that places emphasis on reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing. For this reason, it is essential that the students enrolled in the course have a good command of English and have achieved at least level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages​​. It is also important that students read and prepare all the texts in the course well in advance, given the complexity and length that they may have sometimes. The approach to the course, though based mainly on texts, will be multidisciplinary and therefore will make forays into the fields of cinema and visual arts.

If the situation demands it and classes need to be online, please make yourself visible when I call the roster and when you participate or present. 

 

Evaluation

The evaluation of the course consists of a final exam (50%), a participation mark (20%) and a creative project (30%) that will consist in creatively re-writing and re-interpreting one of the texts read in class.

Please note:

  • In order to pass the course you must obtain a minimum of 5 in the final exam.
  • Sudents who do not come to class, do not participate but submit their final project and pass the exam, may obtain a maximum grade of 8.
  • Students who do not submit their paper by the deadline will not be able to resubmit their project. In their case, their final mark will be based entirely on the result of the final exam, which will be comprehensive, and in which they will obtain a maximum grade of 7. 
  • Students who fail the final exam will have a make-up exam during the following quarter. The remedial exam will be comprehensive and will be 70% of the final mark.
  • In order to take the remedial exam you have to have submitted at least a piece of work for evaluation. The work done during the course will be 30% of the final mark. 
  • Students must obtain a mininum of 5 in the remedial exam in order to pass the course.

Bibliography and information resources

Obligatory readings:

  1. Materials in Aula Global
  2. Two additional books that you will have to purchase and that will be announced at the beginning of the course.

Other recommended sources:

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1987.

Belsey, Catherine and Moore, Jane, ed. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Basil Blackwell, 1989, New York.

Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions. Continuum, 2000, London, New York.

Felski, Rita. Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change. Harvard University Press, 1989, Cambridge Mass.

Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan, ed. Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism A Norton Reader. Norton, 2007, New York & London.

Goodman, Robin Truth. The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st Century Feminist Theory. Bloomsbury, 2018, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi, Sydney. 

Hooks, Bell.  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. South End Press, 2000, MA.

Jackson, Stevi & Jones, Jackie.  Contemporary Feminist Theories. Edinburgh University Press, 1998, UK.

Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. University of Illinois Press, 2000, Chicago. 

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann & Torres, Lourdes eds. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.  Indiana University Press, 1991, Bloomington. 

Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. Routledge, 1985, London & New York.

Nicholson, J. Linda ed.  Feminism/ Postmodernism. Routledge, 1990, New York.

Warhol, Robyn R. & Herndl, Diane Price, ed. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Rutgers University Press, 1997, New Brunswick, New Jersey.