11:15A-12:05P  MWF  (70) 3 cr

This course surveys literary women's achievements in English over three centuries.  Starting
with the eighteenth-century verse of Anne Bradstreet and Anne Finch and ending with the
contemporary fiction of Angela Carter and Toni Morrison, we will consider the coherence of a
female literary tradition unified by certain crucial concerns.  Why and how do women writers
approach the anxiety authorship and authority instill, the gendering of private and public
domains, the feminization of poverty, the battle between the sexes, the meanings of maternity?
However, we will also explore differences among women that mark distinctive variations in
aesthetic productions.  Why and how do literary women articulate dissimilar sexual
preferences, ethnic identifications, geopolitical allegiances?

Although most of our selections will consist of poems and fiction composed in England and
America, we will read some autobiographical prose, drama, and essays written in Canada,
South Africa, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.  All of the texts appear in the Norton
Anthology of Literature by Women, second edition.  Students will be asked to complete the
required reading before the lecture and to bring their books to class.  Classes will consist of
lecture as well as discussions and participation will be expected.  Two exams and two essays
will be required.  Papers must be submitted on the date they are due; no late essays can be
accepted.