Unit information: Between Men and Women: Gender in Literature. in 2014/15

Unit name	Between Men and Women: Gender in Literature.
Unit code	ENGL21008
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Tom Sperlinger
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce a range of approaches for thinking about gender in literature. Students will have opportunities to read a variety of texts, in different forms, chosen from a range of historical periods. Topics covered may include the representation of women in literature; autobiographical writing; male and female readers; sexuality; androgyny; feminist literary criticism and the canon; the relationship between the sexes; and gender roles.

Aims:

This unit will introduce students to a range of texts and ask them to consider issues related to gender as it is presented in and illuminated by literature. A range of critical approaches will be used and students will be encouraged to read widely and to think about issues such as the representation of women in literature, autobiographical writing, male and female readers, sexuality, androgyny, feminist literary criticism and the canon, the relationship between the sexes, and gender roles.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will have had an opportunity to consider texts from a range of historical periods; to think about representations of men and women in literature, the roles of male and female authors and readers, and a variety of other topics relevant to gender in literature.

Teaching Information

The unit will normally be taught in ten three-hour seminars, which will utilise a range of teaching methods including lectures by the tutor(s), formal and informal presentations by students, and small group discussion.

Assessment Information

Students will be required to undertake two assignments. The first will be a formative presentation of approximately 10 minutes, in which students will be asked to engage with a particular text or a topic with a relatively defined scope. The second will be a summative essay of 2,800 to 4,000 words and will normally involve a wider range of texts and/or approaches to gender in literature. The unit mark will comprise the mark for the summative essay.

Reading and References

• The Book of Margery Kempe, edited by Barry Windeatt.

• Oroonoko and Other Works, by Aphra Behn.

• Selected Poems, by Thomas Hardy.

• A Room of Ones Own, by Virginia Woolf.

• A Literature of Their Own, by Elaine Showalter.

• The Cleft, by Doris Lessing.