Annotation
OBJECTIVES
The course will consider the trends within fiction written by women and explore the ways women?s writing has changed and developed since the 1960s. The thematic concerns and formal aspects of several representative texts will be discussed and analysed on the background of literary theory and criticism, and from the broader social perspective of post-war Britain. We shall concentrate primarily on issues such as the articulation of subjectivity, the construction of gendered identity, the re-writing of cultural myths, the re-imagining of history, the place of women in the discourse of nation, and formal and stylistic developments. An integral part of the course are film viewings of TV and film adaptations and the problems of adapting a literary work for the screen will also be addressed.
MATERIAL
Lynn Reid Banks - The L-Shaped Room
Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Angela Carter - The Magic Toyshop
Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Pat Barker - Regeneration
Meera Syal - Anita and Me
ASSESSMENT
Active participation in the course, one oral presentation, an essay on a chosen topic.