LITR261 Themes in Literature - Women

Department of Language & Literature: Literature

  1. Course Number and Title

    LITR261 Themes in Literature - Women

  2. Number of Credits

    3 credits

  3. Minimum Number of Instructional Minutes Per Semester

    2250

  4. Prerequisites

    None

    Corequisites

    None

  5. Other Pertinent Information

    • The Department of Language and Literature has determined that all literature courses must require a minimum of at least 2500 words in writing assignments.
    • During the first week of class, the instructor provides students with a weekly suggested reading schedule for the semester.

  6. Catalog Course Description

    Readings and discussion in this course center on selected works of primarily but not exclusively American and Western European literature that portray female characters in prominent roles and explore the problems of women in their various societies. The works are drawn from various genres representing several centuries.

  7. Required Course Content and Direction

    1. Learning Goals:

      1. Course
        2. Students will
        1. analyze literature through discussion and writing;
        2. demonstrate an understanding of such literary terms, themes, strategies, and issues as are relevant to the works being studied;
        3. express their understanding of the relationship between literature and the historical/cultural contexts in which it was written;
        4. analyze the differences between men’s and women’s roles in literature, including stereotypes and archetypes of women, as a reflection of the historical and social conditions of women; and
        5. examine their own lives in comparison with those portrayed in the readings.

      2. Core (if applicable)
        3. Category I
        Cultural Perspectives
         Students will
        1. demonstrate knowledge and awareness of some components of our society’s cultural heritage such as artistic, historical, linguistic, literary, and philosophical foundations;
        2. compare, contrast, analyze, and/or defend differing world views and practices;
        3. demonstrate the ability to think independently by reading critically, thinking analytically, and communicating effectively in oral and/or written formats within the context of studying diversity in our culture.

        Category III
        Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
         Students will
        1. understand and express the meaning and significance of a variety of communications (Interpretation);
        1. identify the explicit and implied features of a communication, especially in arguments that put forth a conclusion. (Analysis skills);
        1. reason from what they know to form new knowledge, draw conclusions, solve problems, explain, decide, and/or predict. (Inductive and/or Deductive Reasoning Skills);
        2. communicate and justify clearly the results of their reasoning. (Presenting Arguments Skills).

        International, Gender, and/or Minority Perspectives
         Students will
        1. identify prejudice, stereotypes, and misuses of power that affect the lives of women and/or minorities in areas such as education, business, politics, religion, or industry.

    2. Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities:

      Readings explore social and cultural attitudes toward women as they have been expressed from Classical Greece, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, into the present period. Works include the several genres and may include historical documents as well as literature.
      In addition:
      1. Students enter the course both with and without training in verbal analysis of literature; therefore, a subsidiary set of objectives dealing with literary analysis may be imported as individual student needs dictate.
      2. Reading remains the basic learning method available to students although various means of instruction are employed: Lectures, group discussion, mock trials, role playing, individual or group presentations to the class, team teaching, library research, etc.
      3. Through reading, writing, discussion, and various class activities, students identify, explain, and analyze the following: formal elements of the literature, particularly images, image patterns, narrative strategies, diction, and structural divisions of the work; themes and thematic patterns; literary periods, movements, and terms as appropriate to the literature.
      4. The writing requirement complies with Department standards for literature courses, a minimum of 2,500 words. Writing assignments reflect the course goals that students can comprehend, interpret, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the literature.
      5. Because there are no prerequisites for literature courses, it is important that students understand the kind and quality of the writing expected.
      6. Students use various critical approaches as ways of assigning the meanings in the work; these include but are not limited to the major critical schools—humanistic, ethical, socio-cultural, historical (both the history of events and the history of ideas), psychological, mythical, and formal.

    3. Assessment Methods for Core Learning Goals:

      1. Course
        2. To evaluate all course-specific learning goals and objectives, instructors may determine the depth and quality of student comprehension and critical thinking through several analytical essays (2500 words total required), exams, quizzes, journals, oral or multi-media presentations, class discussions, conferences with individual students, service learning projects, and other methods as necessary to course content.

      2. Core (if applicable)
        3. To evaluate all Core learning goals and objectives, instructors may determine the depth and quality of student comprehension and critical thinking through several analytical essays (2500 words total required), exams, quizzes, journals, oral or multi-media presentations, class discussions, conferences with individual students, service learning projects, and other methods as necessary to course content.

    4. Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Students:

      Readings: Works may be chosen from the following list. Supplementary readings may be added at the discretion of the instructor. In writing assignments, the instructor shall try to incorporate some items from this list that are not covered in class.
      Sophocles, Antigone
      Aristophanes, Lysistrata
      Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (selections)
      Pope, The Rape of the Lock and Moral Essay, Epistle II: Of the Characters of Women
      Flaubert, Madame Bovary
      Ibsen, A Doll’s House or Hedda Gabler
      Wharton, The House of Mirth
      Lessing, "To Room Nineteen"
      Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
      Wycherley, The Country Wife
      Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"
      Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
      Freeman, "A New England Nun"
      Jewett, "The Town Poor"
      Shakespeare, a play with women in prominent roles
      Milton, excerpts from Paradise Lost
      GENESIS, chapters 1-3
      Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
      Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel
      Mishima, 'Patriotism"
      Garcia Marquez, "Death Constant Beyond Love"
      Renaissance, Romantic, Victorian, and twentieth-century poetry selections

  8. Teaching Methods Employed

    Section VIII is not being used in new and revised syllabi as of 12/10/08.

Review/Approval Date - 5/99; Core Goals/Objectives added 4/04; Revised 5/2010