| Unit name | Women and Nation TB-2 |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MODL20023 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Glynn |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Modern Languages |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit aims to provide a comparative introduction to cultural representations of women in the discourse of three distinct national contexts, and considers how those representations relate to the reality of women’s’ lives and to their roles and responsibilities within the nation. The precise comparative contexts studied may vary from year to year, but the ranges of national contexts available for inclusion are Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.
The unit will open with an introduction to Nira Yuval Davis’s theorization of the burden of representation placed upon women within nationalist discourse and of the role women are called upon to play as cultural reproducers and border guards of the nation. From there, the course will proceed to explore three main topics within the three different national contexts studied: women and the making of the nation; women under authoritarianism; women’s rights within the nation. These topics provide a solid common ground for comparative investigation and understanding to develop, while also allowing for exploration of issues distinct to a given cultural context. Weekly lectures will provide an outline of how a particular issue manifests in the national context under examination, while seminars are devoted to developing students’ understanding of the issue through the analysis of diverse text types (legislation, iconography, cultural production).
In addition to developing students’ understanding of the often ambiguous relationship between the representation of women and the role played by women within a national context, the unit aims to develop students’ intercultural awareness through the comparative study of diverse contexts. It also seeks to develop their critical and communicative skills, through close analysis of a diverse range of texts and through the completion of formal assessment tasks.
Aims:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities, including seminars, lectures, and collaborative as well as self-directed learning opportunities supported by tutor consultation
1 x 1500-word collaborative commentary (25%). Testing ILOs 1-4.
1 x 2500-word essay; option of topic to be devised by the student (75%). Testing ILOs 1-5.
Primary texts will be provided in the course pack.
Secondary reading includes the following key texts:
Nira Yuval Davis, Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997)
Sita Ranchod-Nilsson and Mary Ann Tétreault (ed.), Women, States, and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? (London: Routledge, 2000)
Mirna Cicioni and Nicole Prunster, Visions and Revisions: Women in Italian Culture (Oxford: Berg, 1993).
Ute Frevert, Women in German History: From Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Liberation (Oxford: Berg, 1989)
Hana Hašková and Zuzana Uhde (ed.), Women and Social Citizenship in Czech Society: Continuity and Change (Prague: Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2009).
Karin Rosemblatt, Gendered Compromises: Political Cultures and the State in Chile, 1920-1950 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
