Particular attention will be paid to developments in African American women s writing and to lesbian literary representation in this period. Writers may include Djuna Barnes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Carson McCullers, Toni Morrison, Tillie Olsen, Ann Petry, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, and Hisaye Yamamoto. The course aims to examine the possibilities of global feminism as an international movement of political and economic transformation. The course will provide conceptual and working knowledge of bibliographic tools and information sources for accessing information on women and gender within both the national and international framework. WS major or minor, or eight credits in the department.
Students undertake extensive theoretical readings and attend mandatory weekly film screenings.
Special attention is paid to the situation of dual-earner families. Class and ethnic differences on the nature of this inequality are considered, and the barriers to full equality at home explored. Jane Crosthwaite Mary Daly, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Phyllis Trible, and Naomi Goldenberg, among others, have argued that traditional Jewish and Christian theological systems have overlooked the needs, concerns, histories, and contributions of women. Their challenges range from the historical modification of a presumably unbiased religious system to the outright rejection of a so-called patriarchal establishment. Whatever their approach, feminist theologies offer diverse and incisive tools for understanding how a theological system operates, how transitory cultural assumptions become embedded in ongoing doctrines, and how apparently minor adjustments can have significant ripple effects.