Special Topics in Writing: Writing about Women--Cultural and Historical Contexts in America, 1850-1950.
English 0388-001
Professor Beth Ann Rothermel
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30-4:30, and by appointment. Bates 213, #572-5336.
E-mail: brothermel@foma.wsc.ma.edu
Meeting place and time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:45-2:00, Bates 203
Required Texts and Supplies:
- Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: An Anthology.
Edited by Karen L. Kilcup. Blackwell Publishers.
- Uncle Tom's Cabin.
By Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- The Awakening.
By Kate Chopin.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God.
By Zora Neale Hurston.
- A notebook to be used as a journal.
- File folders for handing in individual papers.
Welcome!
General Course Description: This course will examine the works of women writing between the years of 1850 and 1950, a period that begins with the rise of the "cult of domesticity" and ends just prior to the onset of second-wave feminism. We will look at essays, poems, personal narratives, short stories, speeches and novels, studying the ways in which women authors voiced their feelings about and criticisms of social and political practices current to their times.
So that we might better understand the relationship of social context to our own writings, we will read texts as cultural products and study them in terms of their historical background. We will emphasize the three modes of persuasion, paying specific attention to the way that ethos, pathos, and logos function in the works we read and write. We will also consider the relationship between form and content, examining how style helps or hinders writers in forwarding arguments and ideas.
Specific Course Goals--at the end of this semester you should be able to:
- Understand and work more easily with a variety of genres.
- Read texts reflectively and critically.
- Engage in the research process with confidence, evaluating, using, and documenting source material skillfully.
- Write with power and precision, tailoring your style for particular audiences.
- Work collaboratively, coordinating writing and revision activities within a group.
Attendance: This class requires collaborative learning. Attendance is vital and multiple absences will affect your grade.
Much of the work that we will be doing in this class involves discussion. Your success, as well as the success of your peers, depends upon your regular participation. This is especially true on days when rough drafts are due. Failure to attend class on these days will most certainly affect your grade.
Assignments: Assignments will include a reflective/personal essay; an exploratory essay; a critical review; a researched argument; and a final work of short fiction, poetry, autobiography, or argument. For most of these essays you will write and submit at least one rough draft before producing the final draft. Over the course of the semester you will also complete several peer critiques, keep a reading journal, and give a brief presentation.
Assignments handed in late will be marked down (five points per day). Failure to hand in rough drafts and peer critiques will lower the grade on your final draft considerably (see section on grading). All drafts should be typed and double-spaced. Papers should be documented using MLA guidelines. You will always need at least 2 photocopies of your rough drafts. Consider this an additional course expense. Students should also retain a photocopy of all their final drafts. Conferences with the instructor will be arranged when necessary. Any exceptions to the above guidelines must be discussed with me in advance of due dates.
Grading: Your final grade will be based on the following assignments:
- Four essays: 500 points. Papers 1 and 2 are worth 100 points each. Papers 3 and 4 are worth 150 points each.
- One Critical Review: 75
- One Presentation: 75
- Journal: 150
- Peer Critiques: 100
- Participation: 100
For a total of 1000 points.
Most papers will receive two grades: the first grade, for product, will be added into your essay grade accordingly; the second grade, for process, will be added into your participation grade. Note, however, that failure to pass in a rough draft on the date the rough draft is due will not only leave you with a process grade of zero, but also will lower your final product grade by one grade.
When I compute grades at the end of the semester, numbers will correspond to the following letters (i.e., 925 and above equals A, 900-924 equals A-):
- A = 925
- A- = 900
- B+ = 875
- B = 825
- B- = 800
- C+ = 775
- C = 725
- C- = 700
- D+ = 675
- D = 625
- F = 624 and below
Scholastic Dishonesty: Scholastic dishonesty will not be tolerated. See the college's policy on plagiarism in the current course catalogue.
All readings are found in the required texts unless otherwise specified. Additional informal writing assignments will be given throughout the semester. Note that assignments and due dates are subject to change.
September
- 5: Introductions. Journal assigned. For 9/7 read Child, 68-75 and begin reading Stowe.
- 7: Women in the 18th Century. Shifts in political and social roles. For 9/12 read Stowe.
- 12: The Civil War: Abolition. Discussion of Stowe. Essay #1 assigned. First formal draft due on 9/21. For 9/14 read Stowe.
- 14: Stowe. For 9/19 finish Stowe and read handout (selections from Harriet Jacobs).
- 19: Final discussion of Stowe. Jacobs. For 9/21 read Fern, 117-121 and handouts. Working on first formal draft of essay #1 for 9/21. Bring three copies of your essay to class.
- 21: Workshop. First formal draft of essay #1 due. Bring three copies of your essay to class. Fern and issues of class. For 9/26 do peer critique. For 9/26 read Truth, 57-58 and handout.
- 26: Peer critiques. Truth. Abolition and suffrage. The movement for the vote. For 9/28 revising essay #1. Turn in final essay in a folder with the first draft and peer critiques.
- 28: Final draft of essay #1 due. For 10/3 read Anthony (3 selections in packet), Stanton (2 selections in packet), and Fuller, 110-116.
October
- 3: Film: One Woman, One Vote.
- 5: Stanton and Anthony. Fuller. For 10/5 read Harper, 156-170, Cooper, 447-458, and Wells-Barnett, 518-524.
- 10: Stanton, Anthony, and Fuller. Harper, Cooper, and Wells-Barnett. Essay #2 assigned. First formal draft due 10/17. For 10/17 read Gilman, 486-496.
- 12: Harper, Cooper, and Wells-Barnett. Working on first formal draft of essay #2. Bring three copies of your paper to class. Begin reading Chopin.
- 17: Workshop. First formal draft of essay #2 due. Bring three copies of your essay to class. Gilman. For 10/19 do peer critiques. Begin reading Chopin.
- 19: Gilman and Chopin. Revising essay #2 for 10/24. Turn in final essay in a folder with the first draft and peer critiques.
- 24: Final draft of essay #2 due. Finish Chopin for 10/26.
- 26: Chopin. For 10/31 read Alcott (on reserve at the library) and Hopkins, 458-469.
- 31: Chopin. Alcott and Hopkins. Essay #3 assigned. Topic proposal due 11/9. For 11/2 read Winnemucca, 334-341.
November
- 2: Winemucca. For 11/7 read Zitkala-Sa, 581-590. Additional reading TBA (Johnson).
- 7: Women and western expansion. Zitkala-Sa and Johnson. For 11/9 prepare topic proposal. Read Freeman, 409-418, Far, 532-539, Watanna, 570-576, and Mena, 590-595.
- 9: Topic proposal due. Gathering sources and evaluating them. Freeman. For 11/16 working on preliminary bibliography and research review.
- 14: Far and Watanna. Mena. Bibliography and research review due 11/16.
- 16: Presentations. Bibliography and research review due. Working on first formal draft of essay #3 for 11/21. For 11/21 read Goldman in packet. Read handout.
- 21: Goldman. Women and WWI. For 11/28 working on first formal draft of essay #3. Bring three copies to class.
- 28: Workshop. First formal draft of essay #3 due. Bring three copies of your essay to class. For 11/28 do peer critiques. Sign up for conferences. Begin reading Hurston.
- 30: Peer critiques due. No class. Conferences. Reading Hurston.
December
- 5: Film. Revising essay #3 for 12/7. Turn in final essay in a folder with the first draft and peer critiques.
- 7: Final draft of essay # 3 due. Film. Final assignment given out.
- 12: Hurston.
- 14: Hurston.
Your final paper is due in my office no later than Friday, December 22 at 12:30. With your assignment you must also turn in a self-addressed manila envelope large enough to hold your work.