This course is organized thematically, and loosely chronologically, around the vexed and contested category of American women’s literature. Our readings and discussions will prompt questions about this central theme. How do we define “women” or “women writers”? What does the literature produced by such writers look like? How do the writers in our course engage with social and political questions, particularly those relating to gender, race, and other markers of identity? Where is America, and what does it mean to write about it? How do women writers participate in—or challenge—the American literary tradition? Could the writers in our course be said to have developed a literary tradition of their own? Through critical analysis of texts from a range of writers—including Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, and Cristina Rivera Garza—we will collectively propose provisional answers to these questions. As we do so, we will also develop our critical reading and writing skills through the completion of formal and informal writing assignments.
ENGLISH 180AW