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11/16/99
SSOC
223 Women
Writers: A Medley of Voices
Assignment
Calendar Spring, 2007 Tues.
6:00-9:15 E215
Kay Fowler
"For
it is surely a lifetime work,
This learning to be a woman." --
May Sarton
Faith
Ringgold Cotton Fields, Sunflowers, Blackbirds and Quilting Bees
1997
Acrylic on canvas; painted and pieced border
76.5 x 75.25
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d15.htm
"What
would
happen if one woman told the truth about her life?
The world
would
split open..." --Muriel Rukeyser
| WW Sp07 Book Reports and Oral Presentations | WW S07 Book Report List |
Literature/History Links
| Women
Studies
Links | Multicultural
Studies Links | Gay,
Lesbian,
Bisexual, Transgendered Links | Women
Writers
Booklists/Links/Bibliography
| Social
Thought Weblinks
Class
hour and room: Tues.
6-9:15 Room: E215 Office: School
of Social and Human Services, Room E-222 Phone : 684-7565 (don't leave
voicemail) Email: kfowler@ramapo.edu Website: http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/
Office hours: Mon. 5:30-6:30 Tues. 4:30-5:30. Other
times by appointment.
Course
Description: This is a 200 level
women's studies course
surveying the wide, deep and vibrant range of American Women's voices
from
pre-European contact to the present with attention to the context of
feminist
theory and feminist literary criticism. We are attempting to cover a
very rich
tradition in a single semester so the reading is substantial, although,
I
trust, not overwhelming. Still we will only be able to "taste" the
many delicacies and take a quick nibble at some of the main courses.
The
material is wonderful and diverse,
enjoyable and occasionally
difficult. Readings will be
explored and contextualized through a number of individual writing
assignments,
collaborative projects, presentations, WebCT resources and class
discussions,
activities and supplemental resources.
For further details see the detailed course description at http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wwcoursedescription.html
Course
Objectives:
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wwcourseobjectives.html
Required
Texts : PH: Poetry Handout
(provided
first day), Edwige Danticat, Breath Eyes and Memory. AL: Hogeland, Lisa Maria and Mary Klages,
Eds. Aunt
Lute Anthology
of U. S. Women Writers Vol.
1: 17th-19th C. 2004 WOW: Kallet,
Marilyn and Patricia Clark, eds.
Worlds in Our Words: Contemporary American Women Writers. 1996. There will be
additional readings on WebCT6
and on the Web. Get your books
early from the bookstore. Do
not wait until they are
due because the bookstore returns leftover books to the
distributors shortly into the semester. You are
responsible for all
these readings.
Note: For most weeks there will be assigned readings to be done
by the
entire class and assigned readings
specifically for each
small group. You are to read the general readings and your
group's reading. (Feel
free, of course, to read any and all of the other
groups' readings
as you choose!) NOTE:
ALL REQUIRED READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE CLASS!
Writing Assignments and
Projects: Quilt piece (Due Class
2) (group grade); Reading Questions on Danticat (Due Class 5); Email Exchange (Due before
class 6) (group grade); Play Preparation/Performance (Class 7) (group
grade);
Midterm Exam (in-class Class 8); Interview (Due Class 9);
Experiential Project 1 (See below) (Due: Class 10); Poem explication (Due class 11); Hacker ’'Lost Ladies' research
(due Class 12) (group grade ); Letter to Power (Due
Class 13); Experiential
Project 2 (See below) (Due: Class 14); Book Report -- written 3-5
pages submitted the day you present and presented orally on day
assigned for your book; Final Exam (TBA)
Experiential Reports: Under the
new Curriculum Enhancement
Program (CEP) students are expected to do approximately 5 hours of
experiential
learning
outside the
class. This requirement will be
satisfied for this class by completing (and submitting a write-up of
the
experience) two Experiential Projects from the linked list of
Experiential
Project options. Experiential Project #1
is due Class 10; Experiential Project #2 is due Class 14.
Alternatively you can elect to do a
service learning project related to the class.
For options and guidelines see:
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wws07experientialguide.html
Student
Obligations and Course Policies: You
are responsible to read these policies carefully and understand
and observe them: Attendance;
Class Participation; Class
Decorum; The "Ouch" Rule, Academic Integrity; Collaborative Learning;
Service Learning Option; Honors Option:
Students with Special Needs For details see: http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wwpolicies.html
Grading
Policy http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wwgradingpolicy.html
COURSE
CALENDAR
Class
1 Tues. Jan. 23:
Introduction
and Women’'s Voices: Collective Wisdom
(traditional tales and
teachings, sacred stories, oral histories)
In
Class :
Introduction to Web CT and course structure. Asking Questions and
Posing
Frameworks; Group Assignments and selections of texts for Student
Presentations
Setting
the Themes: Anonymous (Shoshone)
"Song of an Old Woman"
(traditional) Nikki Giovanni
(African Am.) "Ego-Tripping"
(1973); Mary Mullinaux Lemon
(European Am.)
"All My Grandmothers Could Sing Most Died Young," (1992); Elmaz
Abi-Nader
(Lebanese Am.) "Preparing for Occupation" Lucille Clifton
(African Am.)
"Wishes for Sons" Joy Harjo
(Creek/Muscogee) "I Give You
Back," (1983)
Collective
Wisdom:
Handouts: Group
A: Zuni "How
Women Learned
Wisdom" 63-64 Group B: Iroquois: "Sky
Woman" 173-4 Group C:
Chinook: "The First Ship" 175-6 Group D: Colette Inez
(French/Belgian
American) "Mary at the Cave". POETRY
HANDOUT: Group
E: Luci Tapanhoso
(Dine/Navajo) "Remember the Things They Told Us" Group
F: Elaine Zimmerman
(European Jewish
Am.) "To Essie Parrish"
Class
2 Tues. Jan. 30
: Speaking Hands (sewing, weaving, cooking, gardening, hair dressing, art and music)
ALL
READ:
Teresa
Palomo Acosta
(Chicana) "My Mother Pieced Quilts" PH; Linda
Hogan (Chickasaw)
"What
Has Happened
to These Working Hands" WOW 475-6; Abbey
Lincoln (Aminata
Moseka
(African Am.) "I Am the Weaver" PH; Lucy
Larcum
(European Am. Working Class) "Weaving" (1868) AL 763-764; Gina
Valdez
(Chicana) "My
Mother Sews Blouses" PH;
View
on the Web: Hmong Story cloth: http://www.uwrf.edu/library/exhibits/storycloth.html AND Elizabeth
Keckley and the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt: http://www.quilters-world.com/pages/features1.php?_id=3&subcat=In
the quilting world
Assignment: Before class: Create a
(paper)
Quilt piece (use a 12x12 square piece of sturdy paper as
provided
in class. If for some reason you
did not receive one, please come by my office during office hours and
select
one.) On your quilt paper tell visually a traditional story or piece of
wisdom
important in your family/culture. Think, for example, about some story
that has
been repeated many times in your family or in your faith community or
at
cultural gatherings or one that has been handed down in
your family through
generations. (As you illustrate this story on the quilt piece, you may
use a
word or two but the primary presentation should be visual). Sign it on
the
front visually in some way.
Sign it on the back with your written name
and the
date.
Activity:
Class 3 Tues. Feb. 6:
ALL
READ:
Marilyn Chin,
(Chinese Am.) "First Lessons" (1987) WOW 62-63; Mary
Wright Cooper "From
the Diary"
(1769) 84-86 on
WebCT; Sonia
Sanchez "Dear
Mama" (1989) WOW 132-134;
Amalia
Sibrian
(Mexican Californian) "A Spanish Girl's Journey from Monterey to Los
Angeles" (1829?) AL 594-6; Nancy
Willard "Angels
in
Winter" (1995) WOW 577-578
GROUPS
READ:
Group
A: Sarah
Kemble Knight
(European Am.) from "The Journal of Madame Knight" (1704)
entries Oct. 2-Oct. 7: AL 60-71; Group
B: Abigail
Abbot Bailey
(European Am.) "from The Memoirs of Mrs. Abigail Bailey (1815)
AL 135-139;
144-162; Group
C: Loreta
Janeta Velasquez (Cuban
Mexican
Transgender) "from The Woman in Battle..."
(1876)
Chaps. 1, 3, 4: AL 1074-1089 Group
D: Lorenza
Stevens
Berbinea "from
Unpublished Diaries" (1851) 98-103 on
WebCT;
Group E: Mary
Coburn Dewees "From
the Journal..." (1788) 230-234 on
WebCT and Dorothy
Dudley "from
the Diary’Äô"(1775) 287-291 on
WebCT; Group
F: Alice
James "From
the Diary"
(1889) 996-1003 on
WebCT.
Book
Reports: Audre
Lorde
(African Am. Lesbian) The Cancer Journals (1980).
Class
4 Tues. Feb. 13 "The Truth About Her Life:" 19th
Century (autobiography, liberatory narratives, memoirs,
testimony etc.)
ALL
READ:
Anonymous,
"Homeless
Woman Living in Car," (1993) on
WebCT; Lorna
Dee
Cervantes (Chicana)
"Refugee Ship" (1975) WOW 61-62; Susan
(Harriet Farley Donlevy)
(European Am.) "Letters from Susan: Letter 2" (1804)
AL 298-301;
Naomi Shihab Nye
(Palestinian
Am.) "Adios" (on
leaving) WOW70.
GROUPS
READ:
Group
A: Harriet
Jacobs (African
Am.) from Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) AL
529-534; Group
B: Nancy
Mairs "from
Carnal Acts" 375-385 on
WebCT; Group
C: Mary
L. Day
(European Am./blind) "from Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl"
(1859)
AL 1005-1008
AND Leslie
Feinberg
(European Am.
Jewish Lesbian) "Natural Becomes Unnatural" 60-65 on
WebCT; Group
D: Zitkala-Sa
(Gertrude Simmons
Bonnin) (Dakota/Sioux) "The School Days of an Indian Girl" (1900)
185-194 on
WebCT; Group
E: Lisa
Springer (European
Am.
Lesbian lived in Iran) "Between Girls" WOW 522-530. Group
F: Sucheng
Chan
(Chinese Am.)
"You're Short Besides," (1989) 434-439 on
WebCT
Book
Reports:
Dorothy
Allison
(Eur.
Am. Working Class) Bastard Out of Carolina (1993);
Maya
Angelou
(African American) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
(1969); Carolyn
Chute,
(Working Class Euro. Am.) The Beans of Egypt Maine (1986);
Mary
Crow Dog
(Lakota Sioux) Lakota Woman
(1990);
Leslie
Feinberg (European Jewish Transgender) Stone Butch Blues (1993);
Helen
Fremont (Polish Jewish Lesbian Am.) After
Long Silence: A Memoir.
(2000); Harriet
Jacobs,
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1867); Lely
Hayslip
(Vietnamese Am.), When
Heaven and Earth Changed Places
(1990); Jeanne
Houston and James D.
Houston (20th C. Japanese Nisei Amer.), Farewell
to Manzunar
(1973); Fae Myenne Ng
(Chinese Working Class Am.) Bone (1993);
Esmerelda
Santiago When I Was Puerto Rican (1993)
Class
5 Tues. Feb.
20: Women’s Voices in Novel Form
ALL
READ:
Edwige Danticat. Breath Eyes and Memory. Read
all.
NOTE:
Danticat will be doing a reading on Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. in the Adler
Theater in the Berrie Center. You are strongly encouraged to
attend and use this as an experiential option
Assignment:
Answer (in a
substantive and thoughtful way with direct quotation and references to
the text) 2 of the questions from Reading
Questions on Danticat Your responses should together be 2-3
pages in length.
Book
Reports: Louise Erdrich Native American) Tracks (1988); Toni Morrison (African American) The Bluest Eye (1990);
Class
6 Tues. Feb. 27 Women's Voices in
Conversation (letters, directed journals, dialogues, etc.)
ALL
READ:
Azza
Basrudin (Malaysian
Am.
Muslim), Maddy Mohammed
(Palestinian Am. Muslim) and Khanum Shaikh
(Pakistani Am.
Muslim) "Our Memories of Islam: Pakistani, Malaysian, and
Palestinian Women
(Re)imagine 'Muslim’Äô and (Re)define
Faith" (2006) 129-159 on
WebCT; Mrs.
Elizabeth
Dixon Smith Geer
(European Am.) "Diary and letter" 251-255 on
WebCT; Elizabeth
Sprigs
(Working Class) (1756) 49-50 on
WebCT;.
GROUPS
READ:
Group
A: Abigail Smith Adams and Mercy Otis Warren (1776+)
239-244 on
WebCT; Group B: Lety Martinez Gonzalez (Chicana
working class) and
Patricia Zaratec (Chicana
working class) "Two Letters
Home" (1981, 1990) 141-155 on
WebCT; Group
C: Harriet
Beecher Stowe
(European Am.) "From Sunny Memories of Foreign
Lands" Letter 1 (1854) on
WebCT; Group
D: Margaret
Tynal
Winthrop
(European Am.) "The Letters of MTW" (1626)
176-178 on
WebCT and The
Winthrop
Women
(1630s-1640s) (European Am.) 235-239 on
WebCT; Group
E:
Merle Woo,
(Chinese/Korean Am.) "Letter to Ma," (1981) 531-8 on
WebCT; Group
F:
Harriett Noble
(European Am.) "Emigration from New York to
Michigan" 223-229 on
WebCT.
Assignment: Write
and send an
email directed to the members of your small group (copied to me) about
what it
is like to be a college student in 2007 -- what were your
expectations, what is
the biggest challenge you face, what are the things you feel have
changed you
in some profound way during your college experience, how has your race,
ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, political persuasions, religion
etc.
affected your experience or your analysis of it? Then
write back to each writer in your group a thoughtful
response to their first email. (In other words in all you will be
writing 6
emails). You will be graded as a
group so be conscientious on behalf of your group mates.
Class
7 Tues. Mar. 6:
Women’s Voices Dramatizing (plays, monologues,
films)
ALL
READ:
Wendy
Wasserstein
(European Jewish
Am.) "Tender
Offer" (1983) WOW 134-141.
GROUPS
READ -- And Prepare to perform (see below):
Group
A:
Cassandra
Medley
(African American) "Waking Women" (1991)
WOW 53-60; Group
B:
Momoko Iko
(Japanese Am.) "Gold Watch" (1972) WOW
231-265; Group C: Alice
Childress
(African Am.) "Florence" WOW
458-469; Group
D: Janet
Neipris
(European Am.) "The Agreement" WOW
542-563; Group E: Denise
Chavez,
(Chicana)
"Novena Narratives," (1987), 295-309 on
WebCT; Group
F: Susan
Glaspell
(European Am.) "Trifles" 1351-1361 on
WebCT.
Assignment:
Read
the play assigned for your group. Draft a summary of the key info about
the
play which you will be sharing with your group in class.
In class you will consolidate your
drafts into a concise but effective summary of the key points and then
work
with your group in class on how you might produce (stage, cast, etc.)
the
play. You will then select and
rehearse one scene from the play.
Each group will then report out on their summary info and then
actually
perform the scene they have chosen from the play for the rest of the
class. Feel free to bring props
and/or wear costumes but this is not required. If
you do want to do this you will need to confer with your
group members in advance by email or otherwise so that the group as a
whole
comes to a decision. You will be
graded as a group, so help each other out.
SPRING
RECESS NO CLASS ON TUES. MAR. 13
Class
8 Tues. Mar. 20:
Women’s Voices Reaching, Teaching and
Preaching (spiritual narratives, educational treatises, sermons,
children’Äôs books)
MIDTERM
-- IN CLASS 6-7; regular class will resume at 7:00 p.m.
ALL READ:
Cherokee
Women
(Cherokee)
"Cherokee Women Address Their Nation"(1817); 177-178 on
WebCT; Margaret
Fuller
(European Am.) "Educate Men and Women as Souls" (1855) AL 430-1; Joy
Harjo
(Creek/Muskogee)
"Healing Animal" WOW
657-8; Francis
Ellen Watkins Harper
(African Am.) "An Appeal to My Countryman"
(1893) AL 799-801; Audre
Lorde (African
Am.
Lesbian) "A
Litany for Survival" WOW 66-8
GROUPS
READ:
Group
A: Sui
Sin Far
(Chinese Am.) "Its
Wavering Image" (1912) 539-544 on
WebCT. Group
B: Judith
Sargent Murray (European
Am.)
"On the Equality of the Sexes" (1790) AL 162-169;
Group
C:
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
(European Am.) "from The Laws of Life with
Special Reference to Physical Education of Girls" 1852 AL 706-717;
Group
D:
Michelle Sharif (Arab
Am.) "Global Sisterhood: Where Do We Fit In?"
151-159 on
WebCT Group
E: Gloria
Anzaldua
, (Chicana Lesbian) "La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New
Consciousness" (1987) WOW
560-572; Group
F:
Adrienne Rich
(Jewish Lesbian Am.) "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian
Existence" 1993 on
WebCT.
Book
Reports:
Jane Addams,
(European Am.) Twenty Years at Hull-House (1909;
1990); Anna Julia Cooper.
(African
Am.) Voice From the South (1892); Helen
Keller,
(European Am.), The
Story of My Life,
(1903); Maria Elinor Lucas. Forged
Under the Sun/Forjada
Bajo el Sol: the Life of Maria Elena Lucas; Wilma
Mankiller
(Cherokee), A Chief and Her People (1993)
Class
9 Tues. Mar. 27: Women’s
Voices Filtered;
Muffled;
Transmitted
(court records, "confessions," anthropological accounts, etc., symbols)
ALL
READ:
Lilac
Chen
(Chinese Am.) "Lilac Chen" (1973) AL 1359-1362;
Janice
Mirikitani
(Japanese Am.) "Suicide Note" (1987) PH; S.N. (South Asian) "Revisionist History"
2006 PH; Nishimura
Ekiu v.
United States
(Japanese Am.) (1891-2) AL 1350-1351; Belinda
Royall,
(18th C. African Working Class Am.) "Petition of an African Slave"
(1787) http://www.medfordhistorical.org/belinda.php
and see
http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/archive/2002/august/calendar/royall2.shtml
; Vo
Thi Tam:
(Vietnamese Am.)
"A Boat Person's Story" on
WebCT;
Sojourner Truth (African Am.) "Speech" (1851)
AL 337-8.
GROUPS
READ:
Group
Readings: Group A: Mary
Read
(European Am. Transgender) "The Life of Mary Read" (1724) AL 98-102; Group
B: Tituba (Native
Am./African Am.) "The Examination of
Tituba" (1692) AL 79-87; Group
C: "Petition for a Ten Hour
Workday"
(1845) AL
148-157; Group D: Lee
Yow Chun and Chun Ho (Chinese
Am.) "Rescued
Chinese Prostitutes Testify at the Industrial Commission." (1901)
377-383 on
WebCT; Group
E: Joyce
Madelon Winslow (European
Jewish Am.) "Born Again" WOW 313-324. Group
F: Vue
Vang,
(Laotian Am.),
"Vue Vang's Life Story as Told to her daughter Marjuo Xiong," (1993) on
WebCT.
Assignment: Interview a woman or girl who is over
65 or under 12 or whose first language is not English (and is not your
first
language). Work up several
questions in advance to ask; you will be adding others as the interview
unfolds. Focus on what your
interviewee thinks is most important to share about
herself and her life.
Then write up the interview (using a pseudonym for your subject
or just
initials). Include a brief
introduction describing the person you chose to interview, the
interview
questions and the interview process.
(Approximately 2-4 pages in length). Bring
to class and be prepared to share it with your group.
Book Reports: Farah Ahmedi (with Tamin Ansary) (Afghan Am.) The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky (2005); Maria Chona (Papago) Papago Woman ed. Ruth Underhill (written 1930s, pub. 1979); Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (20th C. African Am.) Having Our Say. (1993)
ALL
READ:
Alice Walker (African Am.) "Everyday
Use," (1973), WOW 6-13; Mary
Wilkins Freeman
(European Am.) "The Revolt of Mother"
(1891) http://home.comcast.net/~mewf_short_stories/RevoltOfMother.htm
GROUPS
READ: