| Julie Barak Phone:
248-1072 Office: LHH 435 Office Hours: M-F 10:00-1100 Home Page: http://www.mesastate.edu/~jbarak e-mail: [email protected] |
Because I believe that knowledge is created as people work and think together, the most important pedagogical method in the course will be class discussions in large and small groups. Because I believe that the best way to discover what we are learning is through writing out our thoughts to solidify and clarify our observations and conclusions, we'll practice several different kinds of writing. Because, sometimes, historical, theoretical and biographical information helps us to understand literature, we'll share information in the form of reports or lectures.
Optional Text: Donovan: Feminst Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism.
Show up for class. You’ve got to come to class to do well in the class. In order to share your responses and to help us construct a shared meaning of the texts we’ll read and write, you have to be here. Ten percent of your grade is based on your participation in the discussions. Part of this grade is determined by your presence. I'll take attendance every day.
You really can't participate in the class, even as an effective listener, if you haven't read the texts. Please keep up with the readings!
Turn work in on time. I don't like late work. It's not fair to others to evaluate late work in the same way as work turned in on time. I always take it, but I assess a heavy penalty for its delayed submission. For every day the work is late, the grade drops one full letter grade. So, if you have an essay due on Monday, but you don't turn it in until Thursday, you won't receive any grade higher than a "D" for that assignment. Do your work ahead of time. Print your essay or response out the night BEFORE it's due. Don't wait until the last minute to dash something off. Be sure you back up all the work you do on your computer so that you have a copy on your hard drive and a copy on disk. No kind of excuse -- computer or printer problems, disk problems, lost items, etc. -- will mitigate the penalty for late work.
A
Celebration of Women Writers
Voices from the Gaps -- U of Minnesota
Chicana Studies Web
Page
Native
American Authors
Distinguished Women of the
Past and Present
Feminist Theory Web Resources:
Voice
of the Shuttle Gender Studies Page
H-Women -- a site that
explores and discusses women's history
M I T Women's Studies
Home Page
Online feminist
and women's studies journals
Yahoo's
Women's Studies Page
Barry
Laga's Feminist Theory Page
Women's
Studies Page -- Feminist Theory -- University of Iowa
Feminist Theory Web Site
Feminism is a way of analyzing the position of women in society. It critiques the ways in which representations of gender produce, transform, and transcend social stereotypes about women and men. In this critical approach, one examines why certain cultural behaviors are gendered and how that labeling has been limiting and/ or empowering to women and men in society.
Key Concepts:
---- patriarchy: male hegemony or rule by the father. The basic view is that our civilization is pervasively male-centered and controlled, and is organized and conducted in such a way as to subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: religious, familial, political, economics, social, legal, and artistic.
---- Self/ Other: the female tends to be defined by negative reference to the male as the human norm, hence as a kind of non-man or abject "Other." She is seen as lacking the identifying male organ, male power, and the male character traits that are presumed to have achieved the most important inventions and works of civilization.
---- gender: it is widely held that while one's sex is determined by anatomy, the concepts of "gender"--the traits that constitute masculinity and femininity--are largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization. The masculine in this fashion has come to be identified as active, dominating, adventurous, rational, creative; the feminine, by systematic opposition to such traits, has come to be identified as passive, acquiescent, timid, emotional, and conventional.
---- phallogocentrism: this term evolved from deconstructionists who questioned the "logocentrism" of Western literature and thought, i.e. the belief in the centrality of logos, understood as cosmic reason (affirmed in ancient Greek philosophy as the source of world order and intelligibility) or, in the Christian version, the self-revealing thought and will of God. Feminists illustrate how all Western languages, in all their features, are utterly and irredeemably male-engendered, male-constituted, and male-dominated. Discourse is "phallogocentric" because it is centered and organized throughout by implicit recourse to the phallus both as its supposed ground (or logos) and as its prime signifier and power source; and not only in its vocabulary and syntax, but also in its rigorous rules of logic, its proclivity for fixed classifications and oppositions, and its criteria for what we take to be valid evidence and objective knowledge.
---- representations of women: patriarchal ideology also pervades those writings which, in our culture, have been considered great literature, and which until recently have been written almost entirely by men for men. Such works, lacking autonomous female role models, either leave the woman reader feeling like an alien or else solicit her to identify against herself by assuming male values and ways of perceiving, feeling, and acting.
Questions a Feminist might offer toward interpreting a text:
-----How is gender represented/ constructed in this text?
-----What are the text's assumptions regarding gender?
-----What responsibilities, characteristics, freedoms, desires, etc. are attributed to members of each gender?
-----What are the images of women/ men in the text (especially images of women in texts by men)?
-----How and why is woman identified as "Other" (merely the negative object) to man, who is then seen as the defining and dominating "Subject"?
-----What are the covert ways in which power is manipulated in the text so as to establish and perpetuate the dominance of men and subordination of women?
-----What are the female points of view, concerns, and values presented in the text? And if absent, how so and why?
Definitions of feminism:
----- A feminist reader is trying to learn from female writers what it means to be a "feminist." Through reading female authors, a reader is hearing what women describe as their realities, which in turn helps the reader to define his/her reality. By reading, s/he can understand woman as a whole, and by reading minor authors as well as "great" authors in order to get a perspective on all aspects of woman hood and avoid the flat stereotype that dominates.
----- A feminist reader can see men and women as humans, not as two separate genders. S/he believes that all writers have their own perspectives and voice. S/he would need to be aware, fair-minded, and tolerant. Feminist readers are more open minded and accepting of new ideas in non-traditional writings.
-----The definition of feminist reader is, the reader, can be male or female, unbiased, willing to learn from what the writer has to say. The reader must give the author what they are looking for -- imaginative and original judgement. S/he is critical, analyzes and makes meaning for her/himself.
-----A feminist reader is a person who has an interest in acquiring knowledge about women's issues, struggles, accomplishments and perspectives; a person with a desire to explore culture and gender barriers/issues for the purpose of awareness, enlightenment, empowerment and education for future generations.
-----A feminist reader looks for sense of self, self-truth and reality, social, political, economic reform. Equality is what she believes in, being able to express herself. She possesses a strong independent, free person that is able to express herself as well as her feelings. She is in control of her own life and is able to make her own decisions.
----- A feminist reader is a realist who believes that each individual has valuable thoughts and emotions and has the right to be appreciated as a complete person and not as a model of what society has formulated.
----- A feminist reader wants truth and reality to be exposed. They will read critically searching for support of challenges to personal beliefs.
----- A feminist reader would focus more on feminine qualities and be more sensitive to the piece. Feminist readers look into how the piece relates to them personally. A feminist reader would believe in equality, the uniqueness of women, diminishing oppression against women, truthfulness, and freedom. A feminist reader is intelligent, brave, sensitive, head strong, and understanding. A feminist reader is someone who sees women as they are and understands them. They read to find support and discouragement of what they believe in.
----- A feminist reader can see the vision of what a woman is and what she is striving to be.
----- A feminist reader is a reader who looks for some truth in life, to make a connection with other women to create unity, power, and courage. Feminist readers look for ideals held by female characters in order to create their own character.
----- A feminist reader approaches texts prepared to respond empathetically to both female authors and characters. A feminist reader reads through lenses which are skeptical of patriarchal social, political, economic structures and of the expectations for and of women within those structures.