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Feminism and Literature (ENGL306)
Semester 2 / 2010

Texts

y separately published work icon Wild Surmise Dorothy Porter , Sydney : Picador , 2002 Z982831 2002 single work novel (taught in 6 units)

'Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel mourns the demise of his marriage and his life. Full of Dorothy Porter's customary bite and sensuality, Wild Surmise is an engrossing duet between two passionately estranged voices. An intensely moving verse novel of passions and vulnerabilities, love and death.' (Publication summary)

Feminist Literary Theory!$!Eagleton!$! !$!!$!
A Room of One's Own!$!Woolf!$! !$!!$!
Bell Jar!$!Plath!$! !$!!$!
Wonder Boys!$!Chabon!$! !$!!$!
The God Of Small Things!$!Arundhati Roy!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon The Well of Loneliness (International) assertion Radclyffe Hall , Paris : Pegasus , 1928 Z902924 1928 single work novel (taught in 2 units)
Little Women!$!Alcott!$! !$!!$!
Yellow Wallpaper!$!Gilman!$! !$!!$!
Awakening!$!Chopin!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon Bobbin Up : A Novel Dorothy Hewett , Melbourne : Australasian Book Society , 1959 Z813008 1959 single work novel (taught in 7 units) A classic novel about urban working-class life in 1950s Australia, combining the shifting narrative viewpoint pioneered by Modernism with a relentless realist mode. The book abounds with portraits of working women, married and unmarried, middle-aged and young, zestful and tired. These varied existences form the collective hero of the novel whose social message has lost nothing of its urgency. (Source: Trove)
Lady Chatterley's Lover!$!D. H. Lawrence!$! !$!!$!

Description

This unit introduces students to the two terms in the unit title, and investigates the relationships between feminism and literature. Definitions are explored across a variety of English, American and Australian texts from different genres. As well as being an introduction to feminist literary criticism, this unit introduces students to lesser known writings by women, which precede and follow developments in feminist literary criticism. In this way it is part of the recovery of women's writing. The unit also considers the relationships between readers and texts, and focuses on our experiences of reading these texts. Throughout the unit different kinds of feminist analysis are also presented and discussed so that at the end students should have an understanding of the parameters of feminist discourse, where they have come from and where they are now. Central issues considered in relation to feminism and literature include: individualism, politics, history, society, authorship, genre and canons.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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