Instructor: Bülgözdi Imola
bulgozdi.imola@gmail.com
Women Writers of the American South
AN33000BA AN3306OMA
Friday 12-13.40
Office hours: Tue 3-4 and Wed 2-3
Rm: 116/1
BA 3rd year
Rm: XIV
“One who really loves texts must wish from time to time to love (at least) two together.”
Gérard Genette
Description: The aim of this seminar is to present an overview of the literary output of the
Southern states in the 20th century, focusing on women writers who have made their presence
felt on the literary scene since the Southern Renaissance. Based on the analysis of short
stories by Zora Neale Hurston, Caroline Gordon, Catherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty,
Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, the peculiarities of
Southern fiction will be discussed in terms of the position of women writers and the
differences between Southern and mainstream American writing.
Evaluation: based on a short presentation of 5-7 minutes (15%), active in-class participation
in group and class discussions (20%) an end-term test (35%) and a home essay of 1500-1700
words (30%). More than 3 missed classes and plagiarism result in no grade.
Schedule
Sep 11
Registration week
Sep 18
Introduction: the South and the methodology of analyzing short stories
Film viewing assignment: Gone with the Wind (1939)
Sep 25
Southern history, culture, and myths — Southern culture, the Plantation Myth,
the Southern Renaissance
Joseph S. Himes: “Introduction: Background of Recent Changes in the South”
Oct 2
Katherine Anne Porter: “Old Mortality” — The Southern Belle and the New
Woman
Oct 9
Caroline Gordon: “The Long Day” — the position of women writers in the
South
Zora Neale Hurston: “Sweat” — sociological background of African
Americans, the Harlem Renaissance
Oct 16
Eudora Welty: “Petrified Man” and “Keela, the Outcast Indian Maiden” — the
Southern Grotesque and the Gothic novel
Oct 23
National Holiday
Oct 30
Consultation week
Nov 6
Carson McCullers “The Ballad of the Sad Café” — Violence in Southern
fiction
Nov 13
Eudora Welty: “Death of a Traveling Salesman” and “A Curtain of Green” —
the Frontier Myth
Nov 20
Flannery O’Connor “The Displaced Person” — links between Southern and
European literature
Nov 27
Flannery O’Connor “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to
Find” — religion and the Bible Belt
Dec 4
Alice Walker: “Everyday Use” “Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?” and “Source”
— the Black Arts Movement
Dec 11
Shirley Ann Grau “The Other Way” and “Eight O’Clock One Morning”
Toni Morrison “Recitatif”
Dec 18
End-term test
Home essay due date: Jan 8, 2016
Evaluation: during the exam period.
Required readings:
The Southern women writers Course Packet in library contains all the short stories mentioned
above plus the following essays (electronic format).
Baym, Nina. “The Myth of the Myth of Southern Womanhood.” Feminism and American
Literary History. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1992. 181-96.
Himes, Joseph S. “Introduction: Background of Recent Changes in the South.” The South
Moves into Its Future: Studies in the Analysis and Prediction of Social Change. Ed.
Joseph S. Himes. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1991. 1-9
Hurston, Zora N. “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” (1928)
"The Idea of the South." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. 3 vols.
Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
Showalter, Elaine. “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness: Pluralism and the Feminist
Critique.” Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader. Eds. David Lodge & Nigel
Wood. Harow: Pearson, 2003.
General reference:
The History of Southern Women's Literature. eds. Carolyn Perry and Mary Louise Weaks.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
The History of Southern Literature. ed. Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1985.