Women’s Studies 352: Women in Literature
Fall 2014
Instructor: Dr. Anh Hua
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies
Office: Arts and Letters Building, Room #313
Office Phone: 619-594-7146
Email: ahua@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. or by appointment
Section 1, Mon/Wed, 9:00 a.m. – 9:50 a.m., AL 102
Section 2, Mon/Wed, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., SH 127
In this general education course in the humanities, Women in Literature, we will examine
the creative and critical writings by women writers in the U.S, Canada, and the UK. In
particular, we will focus on the writings by Black women, Asian women, Aboriginal
women, Chicana women, and Iranian women. We will examine a variety of genre
including novels, memoirs, short stories, poetry, and narrative film. Some of the themes
and issues we will explore include: gender, race, class, sexuality, memory, history,
diaspora communities, identity formations, language, body, heterosexual and homoerotic
desire, decolonization, anti-racist struggles, migration, nationhood, cultural reclamation,
female solidarity and empowerment, relationships and love. Some of the feminist authors
we will read include Jeanette Winterson, Toni Morrison, Hiromi Goto, Linda Hogan,
Yasmin Crowther, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sandra Cisneros, Audre Lorde, Cherrie
Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, Rishma Dunlop, Marilyn Chin, Opal Palmer Adisa and others.
Note: This is a hybrid course. We meet on Mondays and Wednesdays in the classroom,
but will perform on-line activities on Fridays.
Required Texts (available for purchase at KB Books):
Jeanette Winterson. Written on the Body. New York and London: Vintage, 1994.
Toni Morrison. Sula. New York: Plume, 2002.
Hiromi Goto. Chorus of Mushroom. Edmonton: Newest Press, 1996.
Linda Hogan. The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir. New York:
W.W. Norton, 2001.
Yasmin Crowther. The Saffron Kitchen. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
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Other readings will be posted on Blackboard.
Grading:
Creative Project
Essay
Group Presentation
Final Exam
Attendance & Participation
20%
30%
20%
20%
10%
Readings:
Readings that are listed on the course outline are to be completed by class time on the day
for which they are listed.
Assignments:
Hard copy of all assignments must be given to your instructor in lecture of the due date.
They must be typed, stapled, double-spaced and on one side of the sheet only. All papers
are to be done in MLA style and have a complete bibliography. All essays must have a
clear thesis statement that is supported by the body of the paper. Electronic submissions
of work will not be accepted. Guidelines for papers will be given out closer to each
paper’s due date.
Exam:
Exam will cover material from the lectures, readings and films shown in class.
Attendance and Participation:
Students are expected to attend every class, keep up with readings, and participate in inclass discussions and activities. The final attendance and participation grade will be
determined based on attendance and participation in class discussions.
Late work/Makeup exams:
Students are expected to turn in all work on time. Late papers will only be accepted in
the case of documented illness, emergency, or other misadventure. Similarly, make-up
exams will only be given to students with documented reasons for missing the actual
exam. Students need to contact the instructor within 24 hours of the exam if they miss
the exam.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the use of anyone else’s ideas as your own
in your written work. When using another individual’s ideas in your work, you must
acknowledge this by using the appropriate citations. Students who violate the
university’s policies on plagiarism or academic dishonesty will receive disciplinary
and/or academic sanctions, according to university provisions. Penalties for plagiarism
range from an F in the course to expulsion from the university. (See SDSU General
Catalogue)
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Course Objectives
Your progress throughout the course will be demonstrated in various ways. Learning
should occur both inside and outside of the classroom, through assigned readings, in class
discussions and activities, group work, films, written assignments, and critical selfreflection.
Anticipated Learning Outcome:
- Sensitivity to intersecting concerns of a diverse set of women characters and
writers.
- Application of feminist theoretical ideas and terms to women’s experiences.
- Cultivation of analytical thinking and close reading skills through class activities
and discussions, group presentations, and a variety of writing assignments.
- Analyze the intersectionality of different social identities – gender, race, class,
sexuality, age, and nationality – as concepts and as lived experience.
- Understanding various postcolonial and anti-racist feminist concepts and ideas
such as memory, identities, migration, diaspora, and so on.
- Comprehending the power of creativity, invention, and imagination for the less
privileged and how the arts and critical writing can become a form of activism
and social change.
Class Policies
- Students are responsible for all assignments and announcements presented in
class. If you are late or absent, it is your responsibility to contact another student.
- Be in class on time and prepared to participate in class discussion.
- Racist, sexist, homophobic, crude, or inappropriate remarks of any kind will not
be tolerated. Respect your classmates and instructor. Always use civil discourse
in class.
- Please turn off and stow away all electronic devices, such as cell phones, text
messengers, iPods, pagers etc. at the beginning of the class.
- Computer laptops will not be permitted in class.
- If you are caught texting in class, I may have to ask you to leave the classroom.
Grades will also be deducted if caught texting in class.
Blackboard
Most handouts given in class, as well as announcements, will be posted on Blackboard.
If this is your first time using Blackboard, go to the Blackboard login page at
http://blackboard.sdsu.edu and enter your username and password. If you have questions,
visit SDSU e-Services at http://sdsu.edu/e-services.
Contesting Your Grade
If you choose to contest a grade you received on an assignment you must first submit in
writing an explanation of why you think your grade should be improved along with a
copy of the assignment in question within 2 weeks after the graded assignment was
returned to you. Please bear in mind that when seeking a change in grade it is possible
that your mark will be lowered just as well as increased.
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Students with Special Needs
Students who need accommodation of their disabilities should contact me privately to
discuss specific strategies for accommodation; however, they must have received
authorization beforehand. If you have a disability, but have not contacted Student
Disability Services (619-594-6473, Calpulli Center, Suite 3101), please do so before
making an appointment with me.
Thinking about a Major or Minor in Women's Studies? The program offers exciting
courses, is committed to women's issues and social justice, and is adaptable to your
interests and concerns. Women's Studies is not impacted! For more information contact
the Undergraduate Advisor, Dr. Doreen Mattingly, at MATTINGL@mail.sdsu.edu, (619)
594-8033, Arts and Letters 315.
Schedule
Week 1: August 25 & 27
Introduction to the Course: Women, Creativity and Writing
Week 2: Sept 1 (Labor Day – no class), Sept 3
Jeanette Winterson: Ambiguous Gender, Sexuality and Romantic Love
Jeannette Winterson. Written on the Body. New York and London: Vintage, 1994.
Week 3: Sept 8 & 10
Women and Poetry I
Audre Lorde. The Black Unicorn. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1978.
-
Read “The Black Unicorn” (3); “A Woman Speaks” (4-5); “A Litany of Survival”
(31-32); “Meet” (33-34); “Sister Outsider” (106)
Cherrie Moraga. Loving in the War Years. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: South End Press,
2000.
-
Read “Loving in the War Years” (23-24); “Passage”(38); “Feed the Mexican
Back into Her” (135-136)
Gloria Anzaldua. Borderlands: La Frontera. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books,
1999.
4
-
Read “To live in the borderlands means you” (216-217); “Poets have strange
eating habits” (162-3); “Don’t Give In, Chicanita” (224-225); “Creature of
Darkness” (208-209); “Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone” (195)
Week 4: Sept 15 & 17
Toni Morrison: Black Women, Female Empowerment and Friendship
Toni Morrison. Sula. New York: Plume, 2002.
Week 5: Sept 22 & 24
Literary Adaptation in Film: The Namesake
Film Screening: Mira Nair, dir. The Namesake. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006. DVD.
122 min. (DVD – 3156)
* Creative Project due: Wed Sept 24
Week 6: Sept 29 & Oct 1
Hiromi Goto: Japanese Canadian Women, Storytelling, Cultural Reclamation,
Language, and Sexuality
Hiromi Goto. Chorus of Mushroom. Edmonton: Newest Press, 1996.
Week 7: Oct 6 & 8
Women and Poetry II
Rishma Dunlop. The Body of My Garden. Toronto: Mansfield Press, 2002.
-
Read “What the Heart Knows” (16-19); “City of Dreams” (23-24); “The Body of
My Garden” (41-42); “The Garden of My Familiar” (105-106)
Marilyn Chin. Rhapsody in Plain Yellow. New York and London: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2002.
-
Read “That Half Is Almost Gone” (17-19); “Take a Left at the Waters of
Samsara” (22-23); “Tonight while the Stars Are Shimmering” (72-74); “Summer
Sonatina” (88-91)
Opal Palmer Adisa. I Name Me Name. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 2008.
-
Read “I Name Me Name” (99-100); “Speak and Speak and Speak Again” (43-46);
“Enough” (71-72)
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Week 8: Oct 13 & 15
Linda Hogan: Aboriginal Women and Life Writing
Linda Hogan. The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir. New York:
W.W. Norton, 2001.
Week 9: Oct 20 & 22
Literary Adaptation in Film: The Hours
Film screening: Stephen Daldry, dir. The Hours. Paramount Pictures, 2002. DVD. 114
min. (DVD – 518)
Week 10: Oct 27 & 29
Yasmin Crowther: Iranian British Women’s Writing
Yasmin Crowther. The Saffron Kitchen. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
* Essay due: Wed Oct 29
Week 11: Nov 3 & 5
Literary Adaptation in Film: Raise the Red Lantern
Film screening: Zhang Yimou, dir. Raise the Red Lantern. Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Home Entertainment, 2007. DVD. 125 min. (DVD – 3414)
Week 12: Nov 10 & 12
Group Presentations
Week 13: Nov 17 & 19
Group Presentations
Week 14: Nov 24 & 26 (Nov 26 – no class)
Group Presentations
Week 15: Dec 1 & 3
Women and Short Stories
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Sandra Cisneros. “Woman Hollering Creek.” Woman Hollering Creek and Other
Stories. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. 43-56.
Maxine Hong Kingston. “No Name Woman.” The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a
Girlhood Among Ghosts. New York: Vintage Books, 1975. 3-16.
Week 16: Dec 8 & 10
Creative Activity
* Exam due: Wed Dec 10
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