Literature by Women from 1800-1900
Class Information
Instructor: Miller, Elizabeth
Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Location: 1130 Bainer
GE Areas: Writing Experience
Description
We often think of nineteenth-century women as confined to the domestic sphere or traditional domestic duties, yet in this century women produced a larger percentage of published novels than they did in the twentieth century, and the most popular poets of the day were women poets. This class will focus on some of the most successful and important women novelists of the day, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, as well as numerous women poets and one women memoirist, Mary Seacole. Our class will consider women authors from Britain, Jamaica, the United States, and India. Our goal will be to think about these authors and texts and the literary forms and genres they express in relation to questions of gender and sexuality; marriage and the marriage plot; authorship, readership, and the public sphere; race and empire; class and education; and debates about the social roles and responsibilities of the woman author.
Grading
Two papers, weekly reading responses, a final exam, participation, and attendance
Texts
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands , Mary Seacole
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon