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College of Arts and Letters Dept. of English English 261: Introduction to Women Writers Fall 2008 Time: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 12:45-2:00; 3 credit hours Instructor: Nancy L. Paxton Office: LA 115 E-mail: “Nancy.Paxton@nau.edu” Campus phone: 523-6280 Home phone: 773-9181
Prerequisites: Eng. 105
Course Description: In this introductory course, students will read poetry, drama, and fiction by selected 19th and 20th century British and American women writers. Nearly half the readings in this course will focus on texts by African-American, Native American, and other minority women. In order to better understand how gender, sexual identity, and the female body have been “constructed” in the past and continue to shape American women’s sense of “self,” we will read a variety of classic, “lost,” and contemporary texts written by British and American women. Class discussions will explore various ways that class, race, ethnic identity, and sexual orientation find expression in these texts, and will consider how gender prescriptions have changed in the last two centuries. Through short lectures, class discussions, and other activities, students will explore the factors that characterize and constitute various features of “difference” in women’s writing; specifically, how gender affects genre definitions, how canonization has shaped our view of women’s creative writing, and our knowledge of our “foremothers.” The syllabus also provides supplementary bibliographies with background on these and other American minority writers and traditions. They are offered to supplement your reading and may be used on your papers. Additional electronic research tools and web sites will also be required.
Liberal Studies Information English 261 is a Liberal Studies course in the Aesthetic and Humanistic Inquiry distribution block. Courses in this block involve students in the study of the human condition through philosophical inquiry and analysis of the various forms of creative expression. These courses help students develop an understanding of the relationship between context and human creative expression, major conceptual frameworks utilized to make sense of the creative arts, and how human experience and values are expressed through creative endeavors. Students will also develop their capacities for analysis and ethical reasoning along with an understanding of the multiple facets of the human condition.
The mission of the Liberal Studies Program at Northern Arizona University is to prepare students to live responsible, productive, and creative lives as citizens of a dramatically changing world. To accomplish the mission of Liberal Studies, Northern Arizona University provides a program that challenges students to gain a deeper understanding of the natural environment and the world’s peoples, to explore the traditions and legacies that have created the dynamics and tensions that shape the world, to examine their potential contributions to society, and thus to better determine their own places in that world. Through the program students acquire a broad range of knowledge and develop essential skills for professional success and life beyond graduation.
Student Learning Objectives: By the end of this course, you will learn to:
1. Demonstrate your understanding of the diverse traditions of women’s writing in Great Britain and the United Stated in the 19th and 20th century. 2. Explain how and why women’s writing has been excluded from the standard literary canon, including the contributions of Afro-American, Native American, and other minority women writers. 3. Illustrate some of the basic effects of the writer’s social and cultural context, including the effects of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality by reference to examples from the assigned texts. 4. Explain some of the reasons that women in different social groups have given for why they write, how it helps them develop, and why it makes them feel more empowered. 5. Demonstrate how gender and sexuality have been constructed differently in different times and places by giving examples from the writing of British and American women between 1800 and 2007. 6. Demonstrate how gender/sexuality has affected the language and forms that women select in three basic genres: novels, poetry, and drama. 7. Identify common themes related to gender identity in two centuries of women’s writing in English. 8. Critically assess and use the basic critical vocabulary and scholarship of major feminist critics, illustrated in essays by Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, Gloria Anzaldua and others.
Assessment of Effective Writing : In addition to discipline-specific skills, this course will emphasize effective writing, an essential skill defined in the University’s Liberal Studies Program. Students will receive instruction in the following Student Learning Objectives:
1. Tailor writing to a specific audience, by use of appropriate style and vocabulary 2. Define a clear purpose for essays using effective thesis and terms of analysis 3. Produce logical, coherent essays that employ transitional markers effectively 4. Effective use of textual and historical evidence 5. Use MLA style for parenthetical citations and bibliography 6. Use appropriate vocabulary, style, grammar, and sentence design
Methods of Assessment:
Students will receive written assessments of their journals twice; and will receive detailed assessment reports on their papers, midterm and final exams.
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