E 332 Modern Women Writers

Overview of Course

To study women’s literature is to enter a conversation that is centuries old, one in which women are thinking in common. At the same time, women’s lives are not uniform. Women’s experiences across this globe are diverse. In this class, we will listen across boundaries and borders, engaging with women writers from countries that differ greatly from the one we currently call home. Among other texts, we will read poets from South Africa, novelists from Scotland and Morocco, and memoirists from Vietnam and India. In Women Writing Across Cultures: Present, Past, Future Pelagia Goulimara writes, “We are seeking to question and retheorize ‘woman,’ ‘writing,’ ‘women’s writing’ and ‘across.’ And we will be translating ‘culture’ into an open series of interconnected terms and questions.” With this framing in mind, we will use a global-comparative approach that considers how women writers cross and challenge boundaries, whether they be those related to national borders, gender-identity, economic positioning, or generic literary boundaries. We will be “thinking in common” alongside a diverse set of writers, expanding our understanding not so much of the “single voice,” but rather of the choir of voices that continually redefine both what “woman” and “writer” might mean.