This experience apparently caused her to turn her attention to a novel. The Forbidden City, published by Macmillan in 1932, reflects her own and her father's experience as well as her own scholarly research as Purnell projects herself as a teenage boy into her father's captivity story, gender reversal being essential to make the adventure viable. In this respect and others the novel offers an interesting set of crossings of cultures, gender, and desires, and will therefore provide, with Lawrence's Woman, the focus of the course. We will investigate the meaning of the fictive landscape while becoming more familiar with a part of Mexico geographically close to us but unknown to most Californians. Since almost all the stories to be read refer to the revolution of 1910 that greatly changed Mexican society, some social and historical background will also be offered.
Brief weekly quizzes to encourage reading and stimulate discussion.
Groups of 3-4 students will design shared or related class projects to be presented at the final class meeting. The student is urged to take full advantage of the professor's office hours to plan and discuss this essay. She has lived in Mexico and translates Mexican poetry.