Spring 2008

E 370W • Women and Literature, 17th and 19th Centuries

Course Description

In this course, we will think about how women's writing between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries developed in relation to the British literary "canon". We will look at how some early modern women writers found their voices by opposing male authorship; and how on the other hand, Daniel Defoe's mock female autobiography of Moll Flanders appropriates a female voice. This course will require students to develop close reading skills and introduce them to a variety of critical methodologies to analyze texts belonging to various genres (poetry, essay, fiction). We will also explore cultural influences and their impact upon these writers and their works.

Grading Policy

One oral presentation 30%
Regular homework exercises and class participation 40%
One final in-class essay 30%

NB: You are expected to do the reading required and to every class with opinions, ideas, and questions about what you have read.

Attendance is mandatory. No incompletes.

Texts

Lady Mary Wroth, a selection of sonnets from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World (to be read alongside with Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis); and a selection of poems.
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko ; and a selection of poems.
Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
Mary Wollstonecraft, selections from Vindications of the Rights of Woman
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

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