Module Identifier EN36820  
Module Title POST WAR WOMEN'S LIFE WRITING OF THE UNITED STATES  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Dr Helena Grice  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Seminar   10 Hours 10 x 2 hour workshop seminars  
Assessment Continuous assessment   2 x 2,500 word essays   100%  
  Resit assessment   Resumbit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements    

Brief description


This module explores the idea of writing women's lives from the perspective of a range of forms of post-war life writing by women, including auto/biography, memoir and diary, as well as less obviously autobiographical forms of self-inscription such as criticism and fiction. It will consider and compare the different ways in which the female self has been constructed in these texts, with reference to psychological, cultural and material pressures. Constructions of the self will be related to structures of narrative, and the module explores how a range of post war American women writers have adopted, adapted or abandoned traditional narrative patterns such as the bildungsroman or romance. It will also discuss and apply current theories of women's auto/biography, and look at the importance of the autobiographical mode in feminist criticism.

Module objectives / Learning outcomes


To introduce students to the variety of auto/biographical modes of writing which has been produced by women in the United States since WWII
To familiarise students with current theories of women's life writing
To encourage students to think critically about issues of genre and form, with specific relation to gender
To widen students' knowledge of post-war women's writing in the United States


On completion of this module students should be able to:
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a variety of autobiographical modes of writing which has been produced by women in the United States since WWII
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of current theories of women's life writing
demonstrate an ability to think critically about issues of genre and form, with specific relation to gender
demonstrate an ability express themselves clearly in writing and in speech

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Sylvia Plath. (1965) The Bell Jar/Ariel. Faber
Rachel Blau du Plessis. (1984) 'For the Etruscans'. photocopy
Jane Tompkins. (1987) 'Me and My Shadow'. photocopy
Maya Angelou. (1969) I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Virago
Evelyn Lau. (1995) Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid. Minerva
Gloria Anzaldua. (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera. Aunt Lute
Audre Lorde. (1982) Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Pandora
Maxine Hong Kingston. (1977) The Woman Warrior. Picador