2:30-3:45	 TR	BH 244

*Carries Cultural Studies*
Why do women want to write? How are women's concerns and desires
expressed within the given literary forms and conventions? How do
their gender consciousness affect their writing? Are there some
universal themes and features in women's writing across cultures? Are
there cultural differences in what they write about and in how they do
it? Why is it that women authors are particularly self-conscious about
writing? This course will examine these questions on the basis of
women's prose fiction in eastern and western literatures in the early
modern and modern periods.  Novels in our reading list include Ann
Radcliffe's *Mysteries of Udolpho*, Jane Austen's *Northanger Abbey*,
Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein*, Higuchi Ichiyo's *Takekurabe*, Zora
Neale Hurston's *Their Eyes Were Watching God*, Charlotte Perkins
Gilman's *Yellow Wall-Paper*, Ariyoshi Sawako's *The Doctor's Wife*,
Marguerite Duras' *The Lover*, and Julie Dash's *Daughters of the
Dust*. The longer ones will be read in selected parts. In addition,
since short stories constitute a genre where women authors have made
remarkable contributions to modern and postmodern developments, we
will sample works by Flannary O'Conner, Kono Taeko, Takahashi Takako,
and others.

Most of the novels studied in this course have been made into films.
Some will be shown in parts in class, but two will be shown in full
outside class sessions. Attendance at these film showings is required.
There will be a midterm and a final examinations, both of which
include brief essay components. In addition, a short essay or two will
be assigned on some of the texts studied in the course. Your final
grade will be based on your scores on the two exams, the essays, and
classroom discussion (including attendance).