ENGLISH 2353/54688: WOMEN'S LITERATURE: Fall 2011
TTH 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. FAC 316
SHARON KLANDER, Ph.D.
Office: FAC 206: (713) 718-6626 (voice mail) or (713) 718-6671 (English Dept.)
Office Hours: By appointment
sharon.klander@hccs.edu
Course Description:
An introductory study of literature written by women, with an emphasis on the contexts of
women's writing, including: (1) the history, tradition, and forms of women's writing; (2)
religious and patriarchal assumptions, including those found in dualistic thought and
language; (3) the relationship of male and female characters to the land, to "Mother Earth,"
if you will; and (3) strategies of coding in women's literature. Furthermore, as with any
literature course, this class will familiarize students with the multiple methods of critical
analysis of literary texts, including (1) deconstruction, (2) psychology, (3) feminism, (4) new
historicism, and (5) Marxism.
Goals for Students:
(1)
Explain and illustrate stylistic characteristics of representative works by writers of
the female literary tradition in English from the Middle Ages to the present.
(2)
Connect representative works of these writers to human and individual values in
historical and social contexts.
(3)
Demonstrate knowledge of the works of writers from the female literary tradition
in English.
(4)
Analyze critical texts relating to the works of writers from the female literary
tradition in English.
(5)
Critique and interpret representative works of writers from the female literary
tradition in English.
Required Text:
The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, 3rd Edition, Gilbert & Gubar, eds.
Required Work:
Readings, as assigned--VERY IMPORTANT!!! Please come to class prepared to discuss
the assigned readings from the text as well as all handouts provided in class. You may
be quizzed on these readings. I reserve the right to ask students who have not
completed the required readings to leave the classroom to finish the work in the library;
after this, they may return to class and participate fully in discussion of the material. I
believe this to be fair to the students who have completed the assignment.
IMPORTANT: The HCCS Student Handbook suggests that you spend no fewer than 2
hours (3 hours preferred) outside of class on homework for every hour spent in class-which means, of course, a range of 6-15 hours outside the classroom. Please include this
time in your schedule of other classes, your work inside and outside the home, and/or
your family schedules.
Glossary of Terms: Please obtain an 8 ½ x 11 Bluebook/Exam Book in which to keep an
on-going, hand-written glossary of any words you come across in my lectures or in your
readings from the textbook or from handouts. Write out the words you don’t know as
you read or record them, then look them up in a college-level dictionary and copy into
your glossary their full definitions. If the definitions are long and include a variety of
meanings, copy out the entire definition and highlight the part of the definition that’s
appropriate to the reading you’ve done. I will check the progress of your glossaries at
random, approximately 4 times over the semester. You will receive a Reaction Essay
credit for each time the glossary is up-to-date.
Personal Reaction Essays (500 words each--2 pages double spaced or 1 page single-spaced)
for which you will receive credit and which, altogether, will count 10% of your grade.
These may be either in-class or out-of-class responses.
DUE: As assigned.
1st Issues Essay (minimum 5 pages): 20%
The basis for this essay resides in your interpretation of a selection of non-fiction prose and
poetry (no fewer than 2 essays and 2 poems) which focuses on various perspectives of how
literature works to make the woman writer manifest on the page—how literature can be
seen as Logos or the Creative Word and how these women describe that turn in their lives
when they begin to understand that process through metaphor, re-definition of language,
both coded and uncoded speech, and their relationships to cultural constructs of sexism,
racism, and classism. The readings for this essay include: “The Prologue” (Bradstreet 147),
“The Introduction” (Finch 238), excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(Wollstonecraft 370), “Ain’t I a Woman?” (Truth 510), poems Nos. 307, 445, 458, 533, 764,
and handouts (Dickinson 1037), “A Room of One’s Own” and “Professions for Women”
(Woolf 237, 244), “Feminist Manifesto” (Loy 255), “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (Huston
357), “On Being Young—a Woman—and Colored” (Bonner 524), “An Introduction” (Das—
handout), “My Sisters, O My Sisters” (Sarton 638), “Dark Blood” and “Lineage” (Walker
717, 718), “Her Kind” (Sexton 919), “Poets in the Kitchen” (Marshall 955), “Aunt Jennifer’s
Tigers,” “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” “Diving into the Wreck,” and “Cartographies
of Silence” (Rich 965, 970, and handout), “Words” and “Edge” (Plath 1064, 1065), “Coal”
and “Now That I Am Forever With Child” (Lorde 1070, 1072), “Poem about Police
Violence” (Jordan 1095), “my dream about being white” (Clifton 1121), “Woman Writer:
Theory and Practice” (Oates—handout), “Spelling” and “Marsh Languages” (Atwood
1205, 1209), “The Management of Grief” (Mukherjee 1238), “Tlilli, Tlapalli/The Path of the
Red and Black Ink” (Anzaldúa 1254), “Rite of Passage” and “The One Girl at the Boys’
Party” (Olds 1280, 1281), and “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” (Walker 1295).
DUE: Tuesday, October 11th
Biographical Oral Presentation (10 minutes minimum): 10%
Please prepare a presentation regarding your assigned poet, including biographical
material and the explication and discussion of two poems, one from the text and one
from another source. This second poem is to be copied and handed out to each member
of the class. You may read from note cards, from a manuscript, or from memory; you
are not required to turn in an accompanying paper. Feel free to prepare audio, video,
overhead projection, or poster enhancements to your presentation. PLEASE DO NOT
SIMPLY READ VERBATIM OF YOUR POET'S LIFE OR WORK FROM TEXT THAT IS
NOT YOUR OWN. THIS WOULD CONSTITUTE PLAGIARISM--AND YOU WOULD
BE GRADED ACCORDINGLY. IT MUST BE CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE PREPARED
YOUR PRESENTATION AFTER CONSULTING YOUR SOURCES. Because your grade
is based solely on your presentation, you should know how to pronounce names and
other words correctly, know the importance of the context of the time during which
your poet worked, and be prepared to answer questions from me and/or from the class
following your talk.
DUE: As scheduled.
Midrash: Religious Text Rewrite (prose or poetry): 10%
DUE: Tuesday, November 1st
Annotated Bibliography: 10%
DUE: Tuesday, September 20th
2nd Issues Essay (minimum 5 pages): 20%
The topic for this paper will be discussed with me and must concern, at least in part, your
assigned writer and must integrate a minimum of two scholarly sources outside the text(s)
to be analyzed.
DUE: Last day of class, Thursday, December 8th.
Take-Home Comprehensive Final Exam : 20%
DUE: Tuesday, December 13th, in FAC 316, NO LATER THAN 1 p.m.
Grading Standards:
The evaluation of written work in English 2353 will follow the same standards which
govern grading of written work in other sophomore-level English courses. A paper, for
example, which describes the obvious meaning of a piece of literature will not receive more
than a "C" at the sophomore level; written work which merits a "B" or an "A" will exhibit
more sophisticated levels of understanding and a higher quality of composition. The
following letter grades will be used:
A (90-100) = Exceptionally fine work: superior in mechanics,
style, and content
B (80-89) = Above-average work: superior in one or two areas-mechanics, style, or content
C (70-79) = Average work: good, unexceptional
D (60-69) = Below-average work: noticeably weak in mechanics,
style, and content
F (0-59) =
Failing work: clearly deficient in mechanics, style, and content
General Course Policy:
1.
You must obtain your own copy of the textbook no later than the start of the
second week of class. This is non-negotiable.
2.
Any machine with an on/off button MUST be turned OFF at the beginning of
and during the entirety of every class session. This includes cell phones, beepers, and
laptops. If you cannot be UNAVAILABLE to anyone outside this class—including via
texting—during its 3 hours each week, please choose another class. This is nonnegotiable.
3.
Please take thorough class notes of every lecture. Come prepared with pen and
paper.
4.
All course work must be completed in order to earn at least a passing grade.
5.
Attendance will be taken. Excessive absences may affect your final grade. Bear in
mind that HCC policy allows for students to be dropped after missing 6 hours of class time
(4 class sessions).
6.
All papers done outside of class will be typed in MLA (Modern Language
Association) format. You will find the requirements for MLA form in an English
Handbook; you may also pick up a set of MLA guidelines from the HCC library.
7.
Please fasten ALL your multi-page papers (including Reader Response Essays)
with a single staple in the upper left-hand corner. Because I do not accept papers that
are not stapled, please staple them BEFORE class. If you don't own a stapler, you may
use the one in FAC 319.
8.
IMPORTANT!!! Keep a hard/photocopied (not disc) copy of any paper you
turn in.
9.
Please remember that I check quotes for accuracy in all assignments, and that any
THREE consecutive words lifted directly from any source and used without
acknowledgment (without quotation marks that would indicate the language is someone
else's and not your own) constitutes plagiarism. Look up in an English Handbook and
learn NOW the differences between quoting and paraphrasing--study especially how to
avoid plagiarism. Any first instance of plagiarism, even if unintentional, results in
automatic failure of the assignment; any additional instance of plagiarism will result
in automatic failure of the entire course.
SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY: According to the Student Handbook for the Houston
Community College System, scholastic dishonesty includes cheating on a test, plagiarism,
and collusion: (1) cheating on a test--copying from someone else's paper or using
unauthorized materials during a test; (2) plagiarism--using another person's words,
information, or ideas in your own written work without appropriate acknowledgement
(and quotation marks when exact words are used); (3) collusion--unauthorized
collaboration. Possible punishments for academic dishonesty may include a grade of 0 or F
for the particular assignment, failure in the course, and/or recommendation for probation
or dismissal from the College System.
ADA ACCOMMODATION STATEMENT:
Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision,
hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the
Disability Services Office at the respective college at the beginning of each semester.
Faculty is authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the Disability
Support Services Office.
For questions, contact Donna Price at 713-718-5165 or the Disability Counselor at your
college. The ADA Web site is located at www.hccs.edu, where you should click "Future
Students," then scroll down the page and click "Disability Information."
Central College ADA Counselors: 713-718-6164.
EGLS—Evaluation for Greater Learning Student Survey System
At Houston Community College, professors believe that thoughtful student feedback is
necessary to improve teaching and learning. During a designated time, you will be
asked to answer a short online survey of research-based questions related to your
instruction. The anonymous results of the survey will be made available to your
professors and division chairs for continual improvement of instruction. Look for the
survey as part of the Houston Community College System online near the end of the
term.