English Women Writers to 1800 Reading Schedule & Required Texts

I thought I would share the plan for my Spring 2010 graduate course with you all. (For my students–the full syllabus is available through coursebook online: http://dox.utdallas.edu/syl17586)

Required Textbooks and Materials

• The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English Volume 1. 3rd Edition. Edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-393-93013-9 (LW in schedule)
• Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader Edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-393-92790-0 (FLTC in schedule)
• Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, Edited by Catherine Gallagher, Bedford Cultural Edition, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-312-10813-7

Date	Assignment
1/14	Introduction
1/21	Short Writing 1 Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” FLTC pp. 414-429 Kelly-Gadol, “The Social Relation of the Sexes,” FLTC pp. 430-436 Elizabeth I’s early letters, ERes Behn, “Preface,” FLTC pp. 24-27 De Pizan, Selections, FLTC pp. 13-19
1/28	Short Writing 2 Zimmerman, “What has Never Been,” FLTC pp. 551-565 Philips, Selections, LW pp. 169-174 “Content,” “Friendship,” “Retir’d friendship,” ERes Andreadis, “Reconfiguring,” ERes
2/4	Short Writing 3 Speght, “Muzzle for Melastomus,” LW pp. 109-122 Sowernam, “Esther hath Hang’d Haman,” ERes Swetnam, “The arraignment,” ERes Schnell, “Muzzling,” ERes
2/11	Julian of Norwich, Selections, LW pp. 37-45 Margery Kempe, Selections, LW pp. 45-60 Gertz-Robinson, “Stepping,” ERes
2/18	Short Writing 4 Anne Askew, “The Ballad,” LW pp. 62-65 Lanyer, Rex Judaeorum, ERes LW p. 82 headnote
2/25	Mary Sidney Herbert, Selections, LW pp. 77-82 “Triumph,” ERes Hannay, “Doo what men,” ERes Paper 1
3/4	Short Writing 5 Elizabeth Cary, Tragedy, ERes LW p. 96 headnote Ferguson, “Spectre,” ERes
3/11	Short Writing 6 Mary Wroth, Selections, LW pp. 101-109 Cavendish, Selections, LW pp. 160-164; FLTC pp. 21-24 Gilbert and Gubar, “Infection,” FLTC pp. 448-460
3/18	Spring Break
3/25	Short Writing 7 Bradstreet, “Author to her Book,” LW p. 152 Isabella Whitney, “Will and Testament,” LW pp. 68-77 “Copy of a Letter,” ERes Wall, “Legacy,” ERes
4/1	Short Writing 8 Phyllis Wheatley, Selections, LW pp. 358-364 Sarah Wentworth Morton, Selections, LW pp. 391-396 Helen Maria Williams, “One the Bill,” LW pp. 398-400 Spivak, Selections, FLTC pp. 798-809
4/8	Workshop
4/15	Short Writing 9 Oroonoko, pp. 1-100 Brown, “Romance of Empire,” FLTC, pp. 861-871 Mandeville, “Dialogue,” Oroonoko pp.166-168 West Africa, Oroonoko, pp. 208-217 Selection, pp. 234-259 Caribbean, Oroonoko, pp. 326-334 Selections pp. 334-365 Britain, Oroonoko, pp. 393-401 Selection, pp. 414-423
4/22	Short Writing 10 Wollstonecraft, Selections, LW pp. 370-391 Selections (except what is in LW) FLTC pp. 41-48 Edgeworth, Selections, FLTC pp. 49-54 Anger, Selection, FLTC pp. 19-21 Chudleigh, Selection, LW pp. 231-233 Fetterley, “Resisting,” FLTC pp. 443-448
4/29	Mini-Conference
5/7	Final Paper Due

English Women Writers to 1800

My graduate class next semester will be English Women Writers to 1800. Early modern women writers engaged in a dangerous craft—dangerous because the very act of writing for an audience (however small) could endanger one’s reputation. Yet, as the work of twentieth century feminist critics has shown, there were a good number of women writing in English before 1800 (published and unpublished alike). In this class we will read a sampling of these women writers with special attention to how they responded to, shaped, and thought about the political, historical, and social moment in which they lived. We will be interested not only in examining these writers’ milieus, but also in engaging with the interdisciplinary study of early English women writers since the late twentieth century.

The texts:

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English Volume 1. 3rd Edition. Edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-393-93013-9
Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader Edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-393-92790-0
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, Edited by Catherine Gallagher, Bedford Cultural Edition, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-312-10813-7

I was thinking about doing individual editions of everything I wanted to look at, but then thought it might be more fun to work from an anthology. We’ll see . . .