English 320

English/WMST 320: Women Writers and Women′s Experience

Dr. Lesley Ginsberg
Office: 1053 Columbine Hall
Email: lginsber@uccs.edu
Campus Phone: 255-4034
Mailbox: 1042 Columbine Hall
Office Hours: Tues. 1:00-2:00, Wed. 4:30-5:30, and by appointment.

Required Texts:

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom′s Cabin (1852) (Norton)

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868) (Norton)

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), ed. Jean Fagan Yellin

(Harvard University Press)

Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) (Vintage)

Geraldine Brooks, March (2005) (Penguin)

Course Reader (CR) (Distributed in class on the first day)

All texts are currently available at the campus bookstore except the Course Reader (CR).

Course Description:

Toni Morrison′s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Beloved (1987) is in part a fictional re-imagining of the Margaret Garner child-murder case of 1856, and is based more generally on Morrison′s extensive readings in nineteenth-century sources.  Geraldine Brooks′s novel March (2005), which also won a Pulitzer in the U.S., is explicitly based on the nineteenth-century classic Little Women (1868).  Both Brooks and Morrison have written esteemed works that bear witness to their literary foremothers: nineteenth century American women writers.  This course examines three of the most significant nineteenth-century American women writers−Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, and Harriet Jacobs−and traces their literary ″legacy″ in the works of two contemporary women writers.  Yet this course also asks students to delve into the legacy by exploring the vast field of nineteenth-century American women writers, as well as developing the tools to think critically about these literatures, culminating in a term paper.  In so doing, we will examine the unique tensions faced by American women writers who wrote in a time before women were fully enfranchised in the U.S., and discover how those tensions are present in literary works across two centuries that interrogate such issues as aesthetics, authorship, motherhood, class, gender, sexuality, race, and writing.

Course Requirements:

1.  This course is conducted as a seminar: regular attendance and participation in class discussions are essential.  Since we have only fifteen course sessions per semester, each student will be permitted up to two absences without penalty.  With the third absence, the grade is lowered by two-thirds of a letter grade (e.g. from B+ to B-).  With the fourth absence, the student has missed more than twenty-five percent of all class sessions; the student fails the course.  There are no ″excused″ absences, except under the most extraordinary circumstances.  Each day I will circulate an attendance sheet−please sign in.

2.  Participation in discussions.  I ask you to make every effort to come to class, to ask questions, and to take advantage of my office hours (or make appointments). 

3. One in-class Midterm essay exam.  You will need your books (Stowe, Alcott) and your Course Reader, but please do not use notes external to your books.  Dictionaries are allowed.  Please bring one or two blue books; lined paper stapled together is also acceptable. 

4.  A presentation and a brief in-class essay about your reading of an independently researched primary source.  You will be working in pairs on this assignment.  This is due in class on Wednesday, 11 October.  The in-class writing you do about your research will aid you in the completion of your paper in #6, below, and in your term paper,

5.  Two thoughtful, written questions prepared in honor of Dr. Jean Fagan Yellin, who will be visiting our campus on 18 October.  Dr. Yellin is the world′s foremost authority on Harriet Jacobs; indeed, we wouldn′t be reading Jacobs′s narrative if it wasn′t for Dr. Yellin′s work.  You are *required to attend her campus presentation at 7p.  I will be passing around an attendance sheet at her talk.  Please make every effort to attend this special presentation. 

6.  One 3-5 page paper (750-1,250 words) on the Nineteenth-Century primary source you′ve researched (see # 4), and how it relates to one of three main authors we′ve read (Stowe, Alcott, or Jacobs).  Ideally, this paper will later be incorporated into your term paper. 

7. A presentation and a brief in-class essay about your reading of an independently researched secondary source.  You will be working in pairs on this assignment.  This is due in class on Wednesday, 8 November.  The in-class writing you do about your research will aid you in the completion of your term paper.

8.  One 6-8 page term paper, in either expository or creative form.  Ideally, this paper will have been written in stages throughout the semester, and will include the writing you′ve already completed in # 4, #6, #7 above. 

Grading Policy:

One in-class Midterm essay exam = 20%

One in-class essay and presentation on a primary source = 10%

Two written questions for Dr. Jean Fagan Yellin = 10%

One 3-5 page paper = 20%

One in-class essay and presentation on a secondary source = 10%

                        One 6-8 page term paper = 30%

Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will result in an ″F″ for the entire course.  Read the Honor Code section in the Spring 2006 schedule of course, page 23.  Please also read attached guidelines and explanations.  Plagiarism will be discussed in the first week of class; please see me if you have additional concerns about this important topic.

Other Considerations:

1.  All the reading assignments are due on the dates when the readings appear in the syllabus.

2.  If you have a disability for which you are requesting an accommodation, please contact the

Disability Services Office at 255-3354 (Main Hall #105) within the first week of classes.

3.  If you′re a student athlete or an active member of the military who requires special scheduling accommodations, please let me know about your needs as soon as possible, preferably within the first week of classes. 

4.  If class is cancelled due to snow or other emergency, please keep up with the reading.

Schedule:

Wed., 23 Aug.             Introduction: Reading American Women Writers−Kate Chopin′s ″The Story of an Hour″; Introduction to Research. 

Wed., 30 Aug.             Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom′s Cabin, Vol. I (1-189); ″Letter to

Eliza Cabot Follen″ (413-414), ″Appeal to the Women of the Free States″ (427-429).

Wed., 6 Sept.               Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom′s Cabin, Vol. II (190-388); George F.

Holmes, beginning of ″Review″ (467-469 only); Louisa McCord,

″Review of Uncle Tom′s Cabin″ (CR).