English 185B-A - Fall, 2011

Womens Writing II

Class Information

Instructor: Miller, Elizabeth
Time: TR 4:40-6:00
Location: 207 Olson

Description

Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers

Women in nineteenth-century Britain are conventionally thought of as “angels in the house,” confined to the domestic sphere and to traditional domestic duties, yet in the nineteenth century women produced a larger percentage of published novels than they did in the twentieth century. This class will focus on some of the most successful and important women novelists of the day – Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, George Eliot. We will also consider women poets such as Felicia Hemans, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Christina Rossetti. Our goal will be to think about these authors in relation to questions of gender and sexuality, marriage and the marriage plot, authorship and the public sphere, class and education.

Grading

Grading will be based on the following categories:
two papers
final exam
weekly pop quizzes
participation and attendance

Texts

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Middlemarch, George Eliot