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Domesticity and Gender in Mid-19th-Century American Literature and Culture
ENGL265 SP
Crosslistings: WMST257,AMST273
The course will explore literary and cultural questions about the representation of domesticity and gender in works by Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Sarah Grimke, Catherine Sedgwick, Margaret Fuller, Fanny Fern, Louisa May
Alcott, Kate Chopin, and Susan
Glaspell. We will also read selections from women's rights periodicals, Fourierist critiques of the family, ladies fashion magazines, phrenological advice books and contemporary medical texts. Secondary readings
include historical research on
mid-19th-century family life, sexuality and sex roles. Our study of historical context will include a field trip to Sturbridge Village. The course will conclude with some texts written in the late 19th century and early
20th century.
MAJOR READINGS
N. Hawthorne, selected tales, letters, journal entries: THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE. E.A. Poe, "Berenice," "The Black Cat," "The Oval Portrait," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia" H. Melville, "The Bell Tower,"
"The Paradise of Bachelors and the
Tartarus of Maids" A. DeTocqueville, "That the Principle of Equality Naturally Divides the Americans Into a Number of Small Private Circles," "The Young Woman in the Character of a Wife" M. Fuller, WOMAN IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY, letters, reviews,
stories Sarah Grimke, LETTERS ON THE EQUALITY OF THE SEXES AND THE CONDITION OF WOMEN Harriet Jacobs, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL Fanny Fern, short essays and reviews, L.M. Alcott, LITTLE WOMEN: OR MEG,
JO, BETH, AND AMY Mary P. Ryan,
"Femininity and Capitalism in Antebellum America" Barbara Welter, "Female Complaints: Medical Views of Women (1790-1865)" Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "Sex as Symbol in Victorian Purity: An Ethnohistorical Analysis of
Jacksonian America" Nancy Cott, THE
BONDS OF WOMANHOOD: "WOMAN'S SPHERE" IN NEW ENGLAND, 1780-1835 Kate Chopin, THE AWAKENING Susan Glaspell, THE VERGE
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Two papers (5-7 pages, 12-18 pages)
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Each student will take a turn or two at initiating class discussion.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly 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 ENGL
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459