Women’s Fiction (ENG 497/G)

Spring 2007

Dr. Jane Olmsted

Office: Women’s Studies Center (between EST and the International Center, on State)

Phone: 270/745-5787

Email: jane.olmsted@wku.edu (no “a” in Olmsted)

Books:

The Giants:

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake

A.S. Byatt, Little Black Book of Stories

Louise Erdrich, Four Souls

Toni Morrison, Love: A Novel

Joyce Carol Oates, Rape: A Love Story

Upstarts:

Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen

Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Nicola Griffith, Stay

Important Note: A new policy allows faculty to drop students for not attending. If you have not joined Discussion Board or contacted me by Friday, 1/25, I will drop you for “nonattendance,” thus making a spot open for others (who have been asking to be let in).

Course Description

In this course, we will focus on the themes, aesthetic importance, and cultural context of fiction by “giants” and “upstarts” written in the 21^st century. Who’s a giant and who’s an upstart? In some cases, that’s more than a little bit arbitrary. No one would argue the “giant” status of the first five authors listed above, but Robinson, who fell into my “upstart” category has won a Pulitzer—upstart? Still, she’s published only two novels, far fewer than the giants’ catalog. Will we like the giants’ work more? Will the quality of their writing rise above that of their “daughters”? Are their themes similar? Interesting questions. But we won’t fall into the trap of comparing the two groups that define our reading list—in many ways, it’s just a fun and convenient organizing principle. Other comparisons will emerge, and we will spend the bulk of our discussions not on comparisons but on the actual work in question for a given week.

ENG 497(G) counts toward the women’s studies minor and certificate. About Women’s Studies: Undergraduates can minor in women’s studies, and graduate students can earn a graduate certificate. Every semester the program sponsors several on-campus events, including films and speakers. We offer an online version of the certificate, of which this is one of the required core courses. Check out our website, at http://www.wku.edu/womensstudies

Disabilities: Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Student Disability Service office, in the Student Success Center in DUC A201. Phone is 745 5004. TTY is 745-3030.

Requirements:

Participation 600

Research Paper 300

Author/Book Blog 100

1000

Discussion of Requirements:

Timing Think of this as a class that meets three times a week, beginning on Monday. That’s when the first half of the week’s reading is to be completed. Think of the second meeting as occurring on Wednesdays, at which time all reading for the week should be completed. The final meeting is sometime later. Posts on Discussion Board (Db) should parallel these days, with first posts occurring on Monday-Tuesday and follow-up posts occurring at least twice by the end of the week (Friday, though I won’t count Saturday posts late as long as the bulk of your posts has occurred per the above guidelines). I think you’ll find that you’ll post a great many more times than this (probably 10 or more). We should preserve Saturday and Sunday as personal time or time to read for the coming week. (The first week is different—read and post on the Byatt story by Wednesday and the Li and Link stories by Friday. But you have until Sunday to finish posting.)

Participation We all share responsibility for online discussions. Discussion must include all members of the class and posts should demonstrate that the reading has been done. Everyone should plan on addressing at least two of the posed questions by your classmates, in the Group Blogs/Webpages. Tangents will be tolerated only for a brief time. Focus on the fiction. See Course Information for more. There are 12 weeks where online discussion will be counted. In the remaining two weeks I’ll expect to hear your plans for your Final Paper.

Graduate students are expected to take the lead and generate more discussion, and points will reflect this. I will not otherwise distinguish between expectations for 497/497G contributions to Db.

You’ll send me a weekly summary that includes: all your posts copy/pasted into a Word.doc or .rtf document, at the beginning of which will be a short summary that includes: 1) overall word count (without headers, tangents, and “I agree”/extremely short posts); 2) number of Original and Response posts; 3) number of and which Discussion Questions you answered.

Literary This is a 2- to 3-person group project, in which you create a brief blog or webpage

Blog/ providing information about the author and book, along with 4-6 discussion

Webpage questions. They must be finished and posted by the Monday of your week—send me the link as soon as it’s ready and I’ll post it. See Guidelines.

Research Focus on a theme or genre-based pairing of the books we read. Write a literary

Paper analysis of the two works and explore the writer’s style, purpose, and themes, drawing from secondary sources (literary theory/criticism) to support your argument and to ground your analysis in the field. Note: since you’re unlikely to find much literary criticism, you will be breaking new ground (potential publications????) and will need to draw from literary/cultural theory/criticism.

Here’s an example of how the works of fiction might pair—you may come up with your own theme- or genre-based pairing:

fairy tale/fable/magic: Byatt, Link

violence/gothic: Oates, Griffith

fathers & sons: Robinson

male world/female world: Robinson, See

sci-fi/dystopia/thriller: Atwood, Griffith

Chinese/American: Li, See

Revenge/love: Erdrich, Morrison

Length expectations: 497 students: 7-10 pages; 497G students: 12-15 pages; all typed, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1” margins. Follow Guidelines—I’ll throw papers back to you that fail to use in-text citations properly.

Schedule of Readings

Readings must be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, unless otherwise stated. Initial comments about early pages in the week’s reading can be posted before Wednesday, but afterwards discussion presupposes completion of readings.

1/22 Introductions, first Discussion Board: lead story of each of 3 collections (Link, Byatt, Li)

1/28 Link (stories) 2001

2/4 Atwood 2003 (given the length, we’ll have 1 ½-2 weeks on this)

2/11 Atwood 2003/Griffith 2003 (webpage for Griffith group should be ready by 2/14, but depending on where we are, may not post till Monday)

2/18 Griffith 2003 (again, we’ll have a little more time, if we can borrow it from last week)

2/25 Erdrich 2004

3/3 Oates 2004

3/10 spring break

3/17 Byatt (stories) 2004

3/24 Work week: email re plans for Final Paper; conversations; conferences as desired

3/31 Morrison 2005

4/7 See 2005

4/14 Li (stories) 2005

4/21 Robinson 2006

4/28 Writing week; conferences; feedback on research papers

5/5 Final exam week: Research papers due by Friday