Module Identifier EN32020  
Module Title CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S FICTION  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Dr Natasha Alden  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Mr Michael J Smith  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours. 10 x 2 hour seminars  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment 1 X 2500-WORD ESSAYS  60%
Semester Assessment 30 minute group summative oral presentation Practice session to take place end week one/beginning week 2. Examination, end week 2/beginning week 3. Half to one day dependent on number of students.  40%
Supplementary Assessment RESUBMISSION OF FAILED ELEMENTS In the event of failure in the essay assignment, an essay on a new topic to be submitted. Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. 
Supplementary Assessment RESUBMISSION OF FAILED ELEMENTS In the event of failure in the oral presentation elements, a 15 minute written script on a new topic, written as if for delivery, with accompanying visual aids to be submitted.   

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. describe and discuss some of the diversity of contemporary women's fiction;

2. demonstrate an understanding of the impact of the Women's Movement and/or Feminism and/or Gender Politics on contemporary women's fiction;

3. analyse and evaluate contemporary women's fiction in terms of its political, historical and social context and content;

4. apply their critical, theoretical and analytical skills to contemporary women's fiction.

Aims

This module seeks to introduce students to some of the range and diversity of British and North American women's writing of the last thirty years in the contexts of the Women's Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and feminist debates of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Brief description

This module will focus mainly on novels authored by women, although short stories may also be discussed. It will consider genre and genre fiction and explore a range of political issues addressed by women writers.

Content

The module will be organized chronologically as follows:

Weeks 1-3: The Women'r Movement and Women's Writing from the 1970s
 Issues addressed include women's writing and women readers, women's rights, the domestic sphere, women in the workplace, sexual liberation, class, ethnicity, ecology.

Weeks 4-6: Feminist Concerns in Women's Writing of the 1980s
 Issues addressed include genre fiction and feminist publishing, gender and sexual politics, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, lesbian writing, matrilineages, motherhood, race, identity.

Weeks 7-10: Gender Politics and Fiction in the 1990s and into the 21st century
 Issues addressed include postmodernism, queer theory and queer writing, the body, the gothic, the politics of location, female friendships.

Depending on availability and recent developments in the field, ten texts may be taken from the following list:

Erica Jong, Fear of Flying (1973)
Angela Carter, Fireworks (1974), The Passion of the New Eve
Marilyn French, The Women's Room (1977)
Marge Piercy, Women on the Edge of Time (1978)
Zoe Fairbairns, Benefits
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)
AS Byatt, Possession
Alison Lurie, The Truth About Lorin Jones (1988)
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989)
Rose Tremain, Sacred Country (1992)
Margaret Atwood The Robber Bride (1993)
Janice Galloway, Foreign Parts (1994)
Leonaro Britto, Dat's Love (1995)
Stevie Davies, Four Dreamers and Emily (1996)
Roddy Doyle, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors
Patricia Duncker, Hallucinating Foucault (1996)
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet (1998) or Fingersmith (2002)

Module Skills

Problem solving Formulating and developing answers to essay questions  
Research skills Yes, developed and assessed in the assessed essays  
Communication Yes, spoken (in seminars) and written (WRITTEN ONLY ASSESSED).  
Improving own Learning and Performance Yes, formulating and developing answers to essay questions  
Information Technology Yes, using electronic resources, word-processesing etc  
Application of Number n/a  
Subject Specific Skills Application of theory to text  

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Background
Helen Carr (ed.) (1989) From My Guy to Sci-Fi Pandora
Linda Anderson (ed.) (1990) Plotting Change Arnold
Mary Eagleton (1996) Working with Feminist Criticism Blackwell
Moira Monteith (ed.) (1986) Women's Writing: A Challenge to Theory Harvester-Wheatsheaf
Nikki Gerrard (1989) Into the Mainstream Pandora
Patricia Duncker (1992) Sisters and Strangers Blackwell
Paulina Palmer (1989) Contemporary Feminist Fiction Harvester-Wheatsheaf

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6