American Women Writers – Eng 261/361
Dr. Bellamy
Office: Academic Center 204
Phone: (455)-3409; email:
cbellamy@vwc.edu
Texts:
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Fawcett.
Bellamy, Connie, ed. New Student Essays. Virginia Wesleyan College.
Cahill, Susan, ed. Women & Fiction. Penguin.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Norton Critical Edition.
Dorenkamp, Angela G. et al, eds. Images of Women in Popular Culture. Harcourt.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper.
Martin, Wendy. We Are the Stories We Tell.
Ward, Cancace. Great Short Stories by American Women. Dover Thrift.
Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. Orchies.
Papers:
There will be three short papers in the this class. The first is the Gossip paper, or "What are they saying about author X?" You will pick any author from the reading list and using the MLA Bibliography (on-line or otherwise) plus other references, tell your readers what 5-10 critics have said about your author’s work, specifically the work we’ll be reading.
The second and third papers will be critical papers for which there are student models in New Student Essays, Reality Check, Ode to Friendship, Tropical Landscape (available in the library) and Dream Child and The Making of a Southerner (available at my web site). There are professional models in your edition of The Awakening, and of course the articles you read as part of the Gossip paper could serve as models.
For ENG 261 these papers must be a minimum of 1200 words and have a Works Cited/Works Consulted list of at least five entries. A computer word count is required.
For ENG 361 these papers must be a minimum of 1500 words and have a Works Cited/Works Consulted list of at least eight entries. A computer word count is required
Schedule
Beginnings: Why Study Women Writers? Chopin Video.
Dorenkamp in class (1/2 of Chapter 1). Chopin "Story of an Hour" Dorenkamp 189.
Read Chopin The Awakening, Norton Critical Edition.
ENG 261: Read three critical articles of your choice on Chopin from the Norton text.
ENG 361: Read six critical articles of your choice on Chopin from the Norton text.
Finish Dorenkamp Chapter 1.
Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills.
Dorenkamp Chapter 2 through Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper."
Colette, Cather, Wharton in Susan Cahill’s Women & Fiction.
Finish Dorenkamp Chapter 2. Gossip paper due.
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome.
Dorenkamp Chapter 3. argument for paper 2 due.
Dorenkamp Chapter 3.
PEER REVIEW PAPER 2.
Paper 2 DUE.
Walker, Petry, Porter in Women & Fiction.
CONFERENCES ON PAPER 2 ALL THIS WEEK
Boyle, Olsen in Women & Fiction; Dorenkamp Chapter 5.
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God. ARGUMENT paper 3 DUE.
Dorenkamp Chapter 6; Rosie the Riveter (video); 1-2 page response to video due next class.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. PEER REVIEW PAPER 3.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.
PAPER 3 DUE.
CONFERENCES ON PAPER 3 ALL THIS WEEK
Munro, Lessing, O’Connor, Oates in Women & Fiction.
Dorenkamp Chapter 8: Truth, Gilman, Kane; Handouts: "Jury," "Hills," "Colored Me"
Final exam: Take home due in my office on or before the scheduled exam time.