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Academic Year 2000/2001

Women, Sociability and Solitude
COL 249 FA
Crosslistings:
WMST 250

Women have traditionally inhabited private space but have rarely been privileged with privacy. With difficulty have women enjoyed solitude, the experience of being unto oneself. Socialization, political pressures and women's own regard for relationships all have promoted the expression of sociability, being for others besides oneself. To gain a time and space for solitude has therefore involved women in fundamental questions about gender identity and the ethical values that gender helps def ine. This course seeks to understand how women have come to terms with the often conflicting values of sociability and solitude by examining the writings of women from the modern industrial era. During this period, the separation of home and workplace w as ratified by the ideology of the proper bourgeois woman: the woman whose confinement to domestic "privacy" made her an agent of socialization and whose movement between private and public made her a vehicle of transgression. How women responded differe ntly to this bourgeois ideal from within different classes and races, and different experiences of parental bonds, will receive special attention in this course about women intended for women and men.

MAJOR READINGS

Jane Austen, NORTHANGER ABBEY Charlotte Bronte, JANE EYRE Louisa May Alcott, LITTLE WOMEN and BEHIND A MASK Emily Dickinson, THE COMPLETE POEMS and SELECTED LETTERS Virginia Woolf, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE and selected essays Jean Rhys, WIDE SARGASSO SEA Nella Larsen, QUICKSAND and PASSING Paule Marshall, BROWNGIRL, BROWNSTONES and PRAISESONG FOR THE WIDOW

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Thoughtful preparation, dedicated participation in class discussion, two interpretive essays and one creative project.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001

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