Women in European Texts: Comparative Perspectives

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Académica y Nuevas Titulaciones
GUÍA DOCENTE 2015-2016
1. Identificación de la asignatura / Course identification
NOMBRE /
Name
TITULACIÓN
Degree
Women in European Texts:
Comparative Perspectives
GEMMA (Erasmus Mundus Master
in Gender and Women Studies)
TIPO /Type
Optativa / Optional
Nº TOTAL DE CRÉDITOS /
credits
PERIODO
1º Semestre (módulo 3)
IDIOMA / Language
CÓDIGO / code
CENTRO / School
Facultad de
Filosofía y Letras
6
Inglés /English
COORDINADORA
Coordinator
TEL. /EMAIL
UBICACIÓN
Building
María Socorro Suárez Lafuente
34985104574
lafuente@uniovi.es
Fac. Filología
PROFESORADO
Lecturers
TEL./EMAIL
UBICACIÓN
Building
María Socorro Suárez Lafuente
Alejandra Moreno Álvarez
Irene Pérez Fernández
985104574
lafuente@uniovi.es
985104580
morenoalejandra@uniovi.es
Fac. Filología
985104573
perezirene@uniovi.es
2. Contextualización / Contextualization
This course will be offered during the first semester of the mobility year, before the final semester
of specialization (MA Thesis). We will read a number of texts produced in Europe by and about
women. The critical approaches fall within the wide field of Feminist and Gender Criticism, so that
students can analyse the texts from common perspectives, which will enable them to appreciate
the invisibility and blank spaces left by patriarchal thought in the diverse fields of knowledge the
students come from.
3. Requisitos / Prior requirements.
Completion of 1st year GEMMA.
Good knowledge of English.
The more students have read and thought about the development of social, cultural and literary
roles, the better they will be able to profit from the discussions.
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4. Objetivos / Objectives.
We aim to provide students with the arguments and critical tools that will enable them to “see” and
discuss the lack of equality, the false historical arguments and the faulty logic applied by malecentred writers and academics. These tools are essential for a balanced view of Westernized
cultures – without them we cannot even begin to grasp an overview of the field of Humanities as
such. Once this critical vision has been mobilized, so-called “mainstreaming” will follow suit.
Students have been immersed in a patriarchal society from birth, they have used a language
loaded with patriarchal thinking. Our aim is to lead them towards the deconstruction of the faulty
arguments on which European culture rests, and to allow them to perform a similar critique in their
own cultures.
5. Contenidos / Course content.
Lecturer
M.S. Suárez Lafuente
M.S. Suárez Lafuente
M.S. Suárez Lafuente
Alejandra Moreno Álvarez
Alejandra Moreno Álvarez
Irene Pérez Fernández
Contents
Introduction to the
course.
Critical Perspectives
Female characters in
the Spanish
Contemporary Novel.
Textual
Analysis of Marina
Mayoral’s short stories.
Eating Disorders and
Cosmetic Surgery in
British Contemporary
Literature.
Compulsory readings
Inbetweeness inscribed
in the Body in
Contemporary Literature
Diasporic female
characters in Asian
British Contemporary
Literature
Research Seminar
Conclusions and
evaluation
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (excerpts)
Marina Mayoral´s “In the parks at dusk…”
Marina Mayoral´s “I only think of you”.
Fay Weldon’s The Fat Woman’s Joke
Fay Weldon’s The Life and Loves of a SheDevil (excerpts)
Monica Ali's Brick Lane (excerpts)
6. Metodología y plan de trabajo / Methodology and distribution of work.
Students will be given the texts in advance, to be read before classes. Lecturers will give students
the key concepts and critical perspectives they will be tackling in the texts assigned, followed by a
discussion to clarify notions and agree on the main outline. In subsequent sessions there will be a
close textual reading, given mainly by students and guided by the lecturers.
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Each of the lecturers will devote a third of her time to outline the main characteristics of her
subject theme and the guidelines for the group tutorials. These should cover at least a third of the
time allotted to each tutor. The remaining third will be distributed between the time for evaluation
and whatever aspect the tutor considers that should be reinforced.
Presencial
No presencial
MODALIDADES
Clases Expositivas
Práctica de aula / Seminarios / Talleres
Prácticas de laboratorio / campo / aula de
informática / aula de idiomas
Prácticas clínicas hospitalarias
Tutorías grupales
Prácticas Externas
Sesiones de evaluación
Trabajo en Grupo
Trabajo Individual
Total
Horas
20
20
%
13,3%
13,3%
Totales
45 hrs.
30%
5
15
90
150
3,3%
10%
60%
105 hrs.
70%
7. Evaluación del aprendizaje de los estudiantes. / Assessment of students.
Model A. Ordinary Assessment
The evaluation will rest on percentage of attendance, implication in the class discussion,
rendering of the amount of new readings and, eventually, the written paper to be submitted after
discussion with the lecturer.
Model B. Evaluación diferenciada. /Differentiated Assessment
The evaluation for students who opt for differentiated assessment will rest on a written paper to be
submitted after discussion with the lecturer.
Originality and honesty are essential in all work. Plagiarism in all its forms, including selfplagiarism (handing in the same essay or work in two courses, or work already used for
other subjects, programmes or circumstances) will mean an automatic fail in the course.
8. Recursos, bibliografía y documentación complementaria. / Resources and bibliography.
Ali, Monica: Brick Lane. London: Blackswam, [2003] 2004.
brah, Avtar: Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge, 1996.
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Braidotti, Rosi: Nomadic Subjects. Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist
Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Gilbert, S. M. & Gubar, S.: The Madwoman in the Attic, Yale U.P., 1979.
Goodman, Lizbeth, ed.: Literature and Gender, Routledge, London, 1996.
Haraway, Donna: “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century.” En Jones, A.: The Feminism and Visual Literature Reader. New York:
Routledge, 1991.
Hiddleston, Jane: “Shapes and Shadows: (Un)veiling the Immigrant in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane”.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 40 (2005): 57-72.
Irigaray, Luce: Speculum of the Other Woman. New York: Cornell University Press, 1985 [1974].
Irigaray, Luce: This Sex which is Not One. New York: Cornell University Press, 1985 [1977].
Martín Gaite, Carmen: Desde la ventana. Austral, 1987.
Mayoral, Marina: Recuerda, cuerpo. Alfaguara, 1998.
Smith, Zadie: White Teeth. New York: Vintage, 2000.
Weldon, Fay: The Fat Woman’s Joke. Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967.
Weldon, Fay: The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983.
Wilson, Amrit: Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain. London: Virago Press, [1978] 1984.