U.S. Women’s Lit and Culture

Professor Elizabeth Colwill

 

Course Description:  This seminar highlights the literary production, cultural strategies, and diverse histories of women in the Americas.  While the course foregrounds the voices of Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and U.S. women of color in the last half century, our inquiry crosses boundaries of nation and genre as we examine the intersections of ethnicity, race, and class; slavery, colonialism, and migration; and sexuality and gender that have shaped women’s experiences, identities, and forms of expression.  This seminar will explore a range of genres–fiction, testimonio, short stories, film, comedy, theater, spoken word, and dance-as modes of self-invention, community creation, political resistance, and historical narration.

We’ll discuss women and comedy; women’s prison writing (Hulihua IV); essays and poetry by Mitsuye Yamada, Tillie Olsen, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Brandy Nālani McDougall, and Haunani-Kay Trask; short stories by Sarah Lau and Fae Myenne Ng; novels by Toni Morrison (Bluest Eye), Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory) and Linda Hogan (Power: A Novel); as well as testimony by Rigoberta Menchu and Joy Kogawa.

Assignments:

  • Weekly 1-page or in-class writing (“pearls”) (25%)
  • Analytical essay (25%)
  • Final creative writing project (25%)
  • Seminar participation (25%)