Essential Writings in Feminism 3301-KA2519
This class acquaints students with the trajectory of the feminist discourse from the beginning of the 19th century to the present time, both British and American. We will cover a large time span, from the classical of the 18th century (Abigail Adams, Mary Wollstonecraft), through the writings of the suffragists and abolitionists (Declaration of Sentiments, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth), including texts written by men (John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Engels) to the twentieth-century movements. These will include the early writings (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir), second-wave feminist classics (Betty Friedan, Juliet Mitchell, Kate Millett, Adrienne Rich, and the feminist manifestos), and the more contemporary theoretizations of the diverse female subjects that offer an intersectional perspective.
1. Introduction.
2. Historicizing the feminist discourse.
3. Feminist writings of the 18th century.
4. The abolitionist and suffrage movement of the 19th century.
5. Feminism and philosophy in the 19th century.
6. Feminist writings of the modernist period.
7. The 1950s polarization of gender.
8. The second wave feminism.
9. The second wave feminism II.
10. The 1980s backlash.
11. The third wave feminism and intersectionality.
12. Post-feminism.
Level of English: B2+.
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
Knowledge:
- knowledge of fundamental theoretical concepts in addiction studies and new historicism
- acquaintance with the assigned texts
- acquaintance with the historical context necessary for the understanding of the assigned texts
Skills:
- the ability to apply the introduced theoretical tools in a literary analysis
- the ability to recognize the texts from the reading list: their titles, authors, and historical contexts
- the ability to discuss and interpret the assigned texts
Attitudes:
- increased aesthetic and ethical sensibility
- increased awareness of the historically changeable signification of drug and alcohol use.
Assessment criteria
Requirements:
Continuous assessment (class preparation and participation): 50%
Final test: 50%
Attendance: no more than 2 absences allowed
Students have to have their cameras switched on during class activities.
Bibliography
Teksty źródłowe:
Abigail Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century.
Declaration of Sentiments.
Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman?
Lucy Stone, Marriage of Lucy Stone under Protest.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Address to the New York State Legislature.
Susan B. Anthony, The United States of America vs. Susan B. Anthony.
John Stuart Mill. The Subjection of Women.
Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics.
Carrie Chapman Catt, The World Movement for Woman Suffrage.
Emma Goldman, The Traffic of Women & Marriage and Love.
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own & Shakespeare’s Sister.
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex.
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook.
Sylvia Plath, Purdah.
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique.
Juliet Mitchell, Women: The Longest Revolution.
Kate Millett, Sexual Politics.
Anne Sexton, In Celebration of my Uterus.
Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch.
Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice.
Susan Faludi, Backlash.
Opracowania:
Eisenstein, Hester and Alice Jardine, eds. The Future of Difference. Rutgers UP: 1985.
Jo, Mari and Paul Buhle. The Concise History of Woman Suffrage. University of Illinois Press, 1978.
Jones, Amelia. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Routledge, 2010.
Morgan, Robin. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Woman’s Liberation Movement. Vintage Books: 1970.
Robinson, Hilary. Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968 – 2014. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.
Schneir, Miriam, ed. Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present. Vintage Books, 1994.
Shneir, Miriam, ed. Femism: The Essential Historical Writings. Vintage Books, 1994.
Tong, Rosemary Putnam. Feminist Thought. 1998.
Warhol, Robyn R. and Diane Price Herndl. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Rutgers UP, 1997.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: