ENGL 250/WMST255. READING WOMEN WRITING, or INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE BY
WOMEN. Fall 2011
Lecture convenes Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:20 p.m., MMH 1400
Discussion sections convene on Friday (see Testudo for time and place)
Course convenes virtually on Blackboard: https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
Professor Martha Nell Smith
Teaching Assistants Isabella Cooper, Kisa Lape
Professor
Dr. Martha Nell Smith
Professor, ENGL, TWS 3238 mnsmith@umd.edu
, 5.8878
Office hours: W 1:30-4:00 p.m. (by appointment)
Teaching Assistants
Isabella Cooper
Discussion sections: 0102, 0103, 0105
ENGL, TWS 2211 icooper@umd.edu
Office hours: T 1:30-3:00 p.m. & by appointment
Kisa Lape
Discussion sections: 0101, 0104, 0108
ENGL, TWS 2204 klape@umd.edu
Office hours: Th 1:30-3:00 p.m. & by appointment
Course Description: Besides telling you that Introduction to Literature by Women counts as a
General Education Humanities and Understanding Plural Societies (UPS) Course, the university catalog describes this “mystery ride” of ours as a study of “Images of women in literature by and about women.” Doing so, we are reading women writing, reading others reading women writing, and reading women and others reading women. That’s a very tall order if we are to investigate, examine, reflect upon and analyze the impact of those images mentioned in the catalog and the various portrayals and interpretations of women on the syllabus in any kind of significant, useful way. So to begin, you might consider what a study of literary depictions of women and the conditions in which they work, play, love, laugh, cry, study entails, or what you imagine such a study entails as you reflect upon the title of the course, its brief catalog description, and this syllabus.
In order to introduce you to our semester’s work, here are some of the large questions we’ll be grappling with throughout this course:
 What role does gender play in the production, consumption, and interpretation of literary and cultural texts?
 To what extent do women comprise a distinct literary subculture forged out of what they might have in common as women, despite the obvious and important differences of race, class, sexuality, physical ability, and nationality that distinguish and at times divide them from one another?
1

 Throughout history and around the world, how have women negotiated their relationships to language, power, their bodies, families, religions, and the state when patriarchal proscriptions have so often limited their access to literacy and sociopolitical agency?
 When they have achieved voice, how have women challenged or subverted the conventions of literary representation? What kinds of stories have they told, and what sorts of themes, tropes, or devices have characterized those stories?
 Finally, how have the changed social conditions of the 21 st century and more than three decades of scholarship in women’s studies and feminist literary criticism changed our understandings of the term “literature by women”? Indeed, how do we in the advanced Western world understand what is meant by the category
“woman”? How is the term “Woman” understood throughout the world?
Our approach will be thematic rather than strictly chronological. Rather than attempting to survey the entire corpus of literature by women, we will put texts from different periods and places in conversation with one another to see how they explore common themes. We will read widely and across a diverse range of texts, but our main goal will be to develop a deep understanding of the shared preoccupations that have animated the form and the content of writings by women in a variety of genres, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, memoir, criticism and theory, and film. Assignments will be aimed at developing your skills in reading and writing analytically about literary texts as well as about the images and texts you encounter on the screens of movies, television, and computers.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Part One: Humanities. By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
1.
Demonstrate familiarity and facility with fundamental terminology and concepts
in the study of literature by women.
2.
Demonstrate understanding of the methods used by scholars in the study of
women’s literature over centuries of writing by women.
3.
Demonstrate critical thinking in the evaluation of sources and arguments in
literature written by and about women.
4.
Demonstrate the ability to formulate a thesis related to women’s literature and to support the thesis with evidence and argumentation by responding to other
critical works.
Part Two: Understanding Plural Societies. After taking this course, students will be able to:
1.
Demonstrate understanding of the fundamental concepts and methods that
produce knowledge about plural societies.
2.
Explicate the processes that create or fail to create just, productive, egalitarian,
and collaborative societies.
3.
Analyze forms and traditions of thought or expression in relation to cultural,
historical, political, and social contexts.
4.
Use comparative, intersectional, and transdisciplinary frameworks to examine the experiences, cultures, and histories of different social groups within a single
society across historical time.
2

Required Texts:
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. 978-0618871711
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening (Norton Critical Edition, packaged with LW and Wide Sargasso
Sea) 978-0393145625
Emily Dickinson’s Correspondences: A Born-Digital Textual Inquiry
( http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/edc ; access through Research Port,
Databases, type in Emily Dickinson’s Correspondences)
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar, eds. Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The
Traditions in English. Third Edition. Volume 2 (Norton 2007, packaged with The
Awakening and Wide Sargasso Sea. 978-0393145625. LW on course outline
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. (Norton Critical Edition, packaged with LW and The Awakening)
978-0393145625
Recommended:
Ostriker, Alicia. “Introduction” and “Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist
Mythology,” Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America (Other five chapters are HIGHLY recommended). Online.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own (Harvest Books 2005) 0156030411 or 978-0156030410
Films, Required & Recommended:
To supplement our reading pleasures, two films are required over the course of the semester:
John Fuegi and Jo Francis’s The War Within: A Portrait of Virginia Woolf (1995), a key film in their Women of Power Series, and Cheryl Dunye’s Watermelon Woman (1996). Recommended films are Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise (1991), a late-twentieth century Awakening; and The
Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, with Lily Tomlin (written by Jane Wagner).
Screenings for The War Within and for Watermelon Woman will be made available through
ELMS course reserves. The recommended films can be viewed on your own (your TAs will discuss ways to do this).
ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING, AND EVALUATION
Too often, grading distracts us from the real business at hand—learning. Thus we have constructed the grading in this course so that all students who do all of the coursework and in a way that their peers and TAs certify is excellent will receive an A; assignments that have been completed and are certified as good will receive a B; those that have been done and are adequate will receive a C. We will provide a chart at the beginning of the course so that you can track your performance on all three papers, and on the unannounced quizzes, in-class writings, participation in lecture, in discussion section, and on discussions online. The breakdown for grades is as follows:
25% - Regular, unannounced quizzes and in-class writings (in lecture and in discussion
sections) and course discussions online (at the Blackboard site). Out of 10 discussion board topics, you must participate in at least 5.
10% - First paper, a 2-p. response; DUE September 16 th .
3

15% - Second paper, a 2-3 pp. interpretation of a text; draft DUE Oct. 21 st , final paper
DUE Oct. 28 th .
25% - Third paper, a 5-6 pp. interpretation of texts, building on previous work and engaging some literary criticism; draft DUE Dec. 2 nd , final paper DUE Dec. 9 th
25% - Final comprehensive examination, a mixture of brief identifications, short
interpretations, and a short essay. Tuesday, December 20, 1:30-3:30 p.m. If you come to lecture, participate in discussion section, in discussion boards online, and complete your three papers, this examination will serve as a refreshing review of what you have learned. Our examinations are straightforward and are opportunities for you to survey what you have learned and now know and so build your confidence.
Absence is not an excuse for failing to complete these assignments. You should exchange email and other contact information with at least one other course participant so that, in the case of an absence, you have a buddy from whom you can obtain information about assignments and so forth. In other words, it is your responsibility to obtain information on missed assignments BEFORE asking your TA for clarification.
Three papers: All papers will be close textual analyses, with the second assignment asking you to be more ambitious in formulating your critique than the first, and the third asking for greater ambition in interpretation than the first two. Also, neither the second nor the third paper will be accepted if a draft has not gone through workshop revision in discussion section the week before the paper is due. In those workshops, you and your peers will provide evaluations for one another so that you can submit the best final version possible. No paper will be accepted that does not use the proper citation and is not formatted
correctly. (See formatting requirements below under “Policies.”)
Discussion Sections: Attendance and participation in discussion sections are essential to complete the course in a way that is satisfactory for you. Periodically you will be asked to formulate a question and responses for your discussion section meetings in person and on
Blackboard.
A Note on Grading: Each of you will participate in peer evaluation, have the opportunity to keep track of your performances, and are part of the grading process. The teaching assistants are authorized graders for this course. If you have questions about a grade on an assignment, you should see the TA for your discussion section first to discuss your concerns. The TAs and I will work closely together to assure fairness and consistency in evaluation.
POLICIES
Participation: Despite the large size of this course, our aim is to make it as active, invigorating, and student-centered as possible, but you have to help us achieve those goals. There are a few commitments you must make in order to learn as much as possible and make that learning a fun, rewarding experience. First, commit to coming to class on time (NO EXCUSES: consult the
Atomic Clock 202.762.1401 ( http://www.time.gov
), set your watch by it, and be on time). Also, commit to being well-prepared when you get to class meetings because you will not get nearly as much out of lecture or discussion if you are not. How do you prepare? Bring assigned texts to class with you. Do all assigned readings ahead of time. Take notes on those readings and keep a reading journal. Be ready to ask a question or make a comment, and be courteous to others in
4

the class by listening carefully and responding respectfully. Don’t be shy about coming to office hours. Let us know if you’re having a hard time keeping up with the work or if there’s something you’re just not getting. There truly are no stupid questions, so please don’t hesitate to ask them.
Again, absence is not an excuse for failing to complete any assignment or for misunderstanding the nature of an assignment. In the rare cases where you miss discussion section or lecture, rely on your course buddy for notes and assignments.
Late papers: Given the logistical challenges of managing a large course, we simply cannot accept late papers, unless you have a documented emergency that prevents you from turning work in on time.
Format for papers: Detailed guidelines on assignments will be posted on our Blackboard site, but all work written outside of class must be typed in 12-point Times New Roman or Cambria with one-inch margins on all sides of the page, and with page numbers on every page (except the first), and in MLA documentation style. (If you are not familiar with MLA style, you should purchase the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.) Please put the following information in the upper left-hand corner of each paper:
Course, Section #, and TA name (e.g., ENGL250:010? or WMST255:010?- Cooper or
Lape)
Your Name
Date
Assignment (e.g., Paper #1)
Double-space down from this info, and then center your paper’s unique title (e.g.,
“Maternal Models in The Awakening” or “Homoeroticism in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry” or
“Subversive Sexuality in Watermelon Woman”).
Double-space again and start typing your essay.
Do NOT use cover sheets, plastic binders, or folders for papers. Please staple your paper together (in the upper-lefthand corner) before bringing it to class.
Disabilities: If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation, please let us know right away. If you have a disability and have not yet registered it with Disability Support
Services in 0106 Shoemaker (4-7682), you should do so immediately.
Academic Integrity: Maryland’s code of academic integrity defines the following acts as
“academic dishonesty”:
PLAGIARISM: intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise (e.g., term paper, lab report, test, quiz, examination).
CHEATING: intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.
FABRICATION: intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
FACILITATING ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate any provision of this Code.
Demonstrate your commitment to the goal of academic integrity by handwriting and signing the
5

Maryland Student Honor Pledge on all assignments submitted for this course. The text of the pledge is as follows:
I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on
this assignment/examination. For further information on the Honor Pledge, see http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/code.html#honor_pledge
COURSE OUTLINE: to be cont’d on Blackboard http://elms.umd.edu
September 1. Why a course in Literature by Women? A beginning take on the history and
evolution thereof. Course introduction. What’s literature? Why “literature by women”? What does it mean to write in the 21 st century? What does it mean to read? What does it matter who is writing? What does it matter who is reading?
September 6. What do women need in order to be creators? If Shakespeare had had a
sister. . . . Virginia Woolf, “A Woman’s College from Outside” and “from A Room of One’s Own
(LW 231-233, 237-244). Adrienne Rich, “Claiming an Education” (online), “When We Dead
Awaken” (LW 982-994).
September 8. Women, writing, issues. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own and more (LW
212-250).
September 13. Women, writing, issues. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own and more (LW
212-250). bell hooks, “Talking Back” (online).
Required Film: The War Within: A Portrait of Virginia Woolf
September 15. Thinking Back through Our Literary Mothers. Sexuality, privacy, public
selves. Kate Chopin, The Awakening, chapters 1-XIII.
FIRST 1-p. RESPONSE PAPER focusing on one issue of women and writing
DUE SEPTEMBER 16 in discussion section (10 pt.)
September 20. Sexuality, privacy, public selves, policing: strategies of containment. The
Awakening, chapters XIV-XXVIII.
September 22. Sexuality, privacy, public selves, policing: only certain
outcomes/conclusions/endings are imaginable for women. The Awakening, chapters XXIX-
XXXIX. Rachel Blau DuPlessis, “Writing Beyond the Ending” (online).
September 27. Sexuality, privacy, public selves, policing: only certain
outcomes/conclusions/endings are imaginable for women. Reviewing The Awakening.
6

Contexts: “Biographical and Historical Contexts,” The Awakening, pp. 113-156.
Recommended Film: Thelma & Louise
September 29. Reflecting on the basic tenets of reading and critical interpretation for
analyzing literature by women, its productions and its receptions. Sandra Gilbert and
Susan Gubar, “Infection in the Sentence: The Woman Writer and the Anxiety of Authorship”
(online, FLTC 448-459). Use this essay to reflect upon our readings, to make notes for review, to prepare for upcoming readings.
October 4. The Cultural Phenomenon of the Woman Writer in the Nineteenth Century.
The Case of Emily Dickinson. The logic of storytelling in the Dickinson Electronic Archives
( http://emilydickinson.org
). Alicia Ostriker, “Introduction,” Stealing the Language: The
Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America (online).
October 6. The Case of Emily Dickinson cont’d. The making of an author from the 1890s to the present. Cheryl Walker, “A Composite Biography” and “Tradition and the Individual Talent”
(online). The making of poems from the 1850s to the present. Emily Dickinson’s
Correspondences: A Born-Digital Textual Inquiry ( http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/edc ; access through Research Port, Databases, type in Emily Dickinson’s Correspondences).
October 11. The Case of Emily Dickinson and American Women’s Poetry. Adrienne Rich and Titanic Operas (online; http://emilydickinson.org/titanic ). Ostriker, “Thieves of Language,”
Stealing the Language (online).
October 13. The Cultural Phenomenon of the Woman Writer. . .Reflecting on Nineteenth-
Century America. Issues of Race & Class. Cultural Memory. Reflecting on Twentieth-
Century America. Ancestors, Traditions, Customs of the Country. Beginning Nella Larsen,
Quicksand (LW 360-443).
October 18. Women, writing, issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Nella Larsen,
Quicksand (LW 360-443).
October 20. Reflecting on Quicksand and preparing to read Wide Sargasso Sea. To do so, read
Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” and Alice Walker, “In Search of Our
Mothers’ Gardens” (LW 357-360, 1295-1302).
Contexts: Angela Davis, “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of
Slaves” (online). Toni Morrison, “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” (LW 1009-1026).
SECOND PAPER DRAFT DUE OCTOBER 21
October 25. Writing beyond the ending, or not. In search of freedom and thinking back
through our mothers. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part One (9-37).
October 27. Writing beyond the ending, or not. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Parts Two &
Three (38-112).
7

Contexts: Essays in the Norton Critical Edition of WSS. Edith Wharton, “The Angel at the
Grave” (LW 29-43). Virginia Woolf, “Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights” (LW 227-230).
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (online).
SECOND PAPER DUE OCTOBER 28
November 1. Patriarchal proscriptions, conscriptions. Willa Cather, “Coming, Aphrodite!”
(LW 91-120). Djuna Barnes, “How It Feels to Be Forcibly Fed” (LW 458-463). Gertrude Stein,
“The Gentle Lena” (LW 143-163) and from “Patriarchal Poetry” (online).
November 3. Patriarchal Poetry—NOT. Amy Lowell (LW 128-140). Alice Dunbar-Nelson LW
166-171). H.D (LW 280-300). Marianne Moore (LW 307-319). Edna St. Vincent Millay (LW 444-
458). Muriel Rukeyser (LW 644-654). Anzia Yezierska (LW 201-212). Anne Sexton (LW 918-
926). May Swenson (LW 654-659). Ruth Stone. (LW 708-716).
November 8. Patriarchal Poetry—NOT. Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle (LW 660-686). James
Tiptree Jr. (Alice B. Sheldon), “The Women Men Don’t See” (LW 686-708).
November 10. Questions of Identity, Difference, Cultural Memory. Audre Lorde (LW 1069-
1078). Maya Angelou (LW 926-931). Lucille Clifton (LW 1119-1123). June Jordan (LW 1093-
1097). Ama Ata Aidoo, “The Message” (LW 1263-1269). Marilyn Hacker, “Ballad of Ladies Lost and Found” and more (LW 1269-1278). Julia Alvarez (LW 1341-1345). Audre Lorde, “The Uses of the Erotic: the Erotic as Power” (online).
Required Film: Watermelon Woman
November 15. Questions of Identity, Difference, Cultural Memory. Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude
Simmons Bonnin), “The Trial Path” (LW 173-177). Gloria Anzaldua (LW 1254-1262). Joy Harjo
(LW 1377-1384). Leslie Marmon Silko (LW 1332-1339). Carolyn Forché (LW 1363-1365).
November 17. Rethinking Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sexuality, Sexual Hierarchies: A
Poetics and Politics of Lesbianism. Introduction to “Rethinking the Maternal” (online). Sylvia
Plath (LW 1044-1065) Margaret Atwood (LW 1203-122). Gwendolyn Brooks (LW 780-790).
Revisiting May Swenson. (LW 654-659).
November 22. Rethinking Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sexuality, Sexual Hierarchies: A
Poetics and Politics of Lesbianism. Alicia Ostriker. Minnie Bruce Pratt (online). Adrienne Rich
(LW 962-994), plus “Twenty-One Love Poems” in full, “Transcendental Etude,” and “Compulsory
Heterosexuality” (online).
Recommended Film: The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY!!!
Course review begins.
November 29. The Body. Pride. Fear. Margaret Edson, Wit (LW 1453-1487). Course review
continues.
8

December 1. The Body. Pride. Fear. Margaret Edson, Wit (LW 1453-1487). Course review
continues.
DRAFT OF THIRD PAPER DUE DECEMBER 2
December 6. Identity, Difference, Resistance, Subversion. Alison Bechdel. Fun Home: A
Family Tragicomic. Course review continues.
December 8. Identity, Difference, Resistance, Subversion, Celebration in Global Contexts.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Course review continues.
THIRD PAPER DUE DECEMBER 9
December 20. FINAL EXAM. 1:30-3:30 p.m.
9