ENGL 281

Spring 2024 All Classes

All Classes

Women in the Literary Imagination

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Credit: 3 hours.

Study of the way writers of all genders have portrayed women's images, social roles, and psychologies in British, American, or Anglophone literatures.

Same as GWS 281. May be repeated in separate semesters to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary; with permission from English advising office. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.

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ENGL 281 class schedule data for spring 2024
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	32108	Lecture-Discussion	X	12:30PM -1:45PM	TR	1051 Lincoln Hall	Baron, I	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/16/24-05/01/24 Section Title: Women in Lit of Imagination Section Info: SP24 - ENGL 281 -Women in Literature of the Imagination - Iryce Baron - #metoo: American and British Seduction Fiction - Since October of 2017 when the first allegations of sexual misconduct against the film mogul Harvey Weinstein began to surface, the idealization of the rugged but moral heteronormative American male was undermined by the #MeToo movement. Women begun to speak out, extricating themselves from their submissive roles as social others in American culture. Suddenly, actors who were seemingly formidable icons of postmodernist feminism like Rose McGowan were openly identifying themselves as oppressed victims of sexual assault. Athough the #MeToo Movement was initated by women, gay actors who had also been rendered silent began to report acts of sexual misconduct, adding to the collective voices of the oppressed. Social media was baraged by the confessions of these actors, who refused to be silenced and instead united to dismantle the patriarchy. In this course, we’ll examine the rise of the #MeToo Movement through a study of the Anglo-American seduction novel and how this moralistic story based on the fall of Eve impacted audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. We’ll focus on the image of the male seducer and how sexually active males are viewed by the cultural milieu vs. their female counterparts. We’ll delve into the character of the male rake and discuss the relevance of the male gaze and the male sexual imperative in America and Britain. The intricate relationship between the fallen woman and her child is also a recurring trope in most of the seduction novels that we will read. And we’ll examine how the trope of the fallen woman also became adopted as an undercurrent LGBTQ narrative within mainstream and noncanonical fiction. Ultimately we’ll see whether class differences, identity politics or the enfranchisement of women, liberated females from sexual stigmatization or whether women are still marginalized by expressing sexual agency and outing men for sexual assault. Requirements include: a class presentation and three papers. Texts and films may include: Charlotte Temple, Sense and Sensibility, Pleasantville, The Scarlet Letter, The Ginger Tree, The Awakening, Passing, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Handmaid’s Tale, Thelma and Louise, Juno Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.