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LIT218 The 'Woman Question' in Nineteenth-Century England and America (8)

Abstract

An introduction to seminal nineteenth-century English and American literary and expository writing about the nature, role and rights of women.

+ Subject Availability Modes and Location

Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details prior to contacting their course coordinator: LIT218
Where differences exist between the handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.

Subject information

Duration Grading System School:
One sessionHD/FLSchool of Humanities and Social Sciences

Assumed Knowledge

LIT1%% or CLT2%%

Enrolment restrictions

Cannot be taken with LIT312 The 'Woman Question' in Nineteenth Century England and America

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
.improve their skills in research techniques and in literary interpretation and analysis
.demonstrate an historical understanding of the foundations of modern liberal feminist thought and of the major arguments against feminism
.read key feminist and antifeminist literary texts in an appropriate philosophical and cultural context.

Syllabus

The subject will cover the following topics:
.a reading of Wollstonecraft's The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (published 1792) in order to isolate both the radical and conservative elements in her ideas about women as the basis of feminist arguments in the C19th .the contrast between Wollstonecraft's sexual conservatism and the libertarianism of Byron in Don Juan which reveals a surprising degree of (reluctant) feminism in Byron's otherwise outrageously antifeminist poem .formulation of the main issues of the subject : the franchise; labour; sexuality and sexual politics; marriage and divorce; education; professionalism; gentility; the right to a literary voice .examination of these issues in both English and American texts in such a way as to foreground their philosophical and cultural contexts

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The information contained in the 2017 CSU Handbook was accurate at the date of publication: 25 August 2017. The University reserves the right to vary the information at any time without notice.