WGS 376   Global Women Writers

Introduction

“Global Women Writers” was created to introduce students to some of the literature that is not represented in the Western canon.  The politics of gender and culture are a major part of the foundation of the course, and theoretical viewpoints—everything from subaltern studies to poststructuralism—are integrated into the readings, lecture, and class discussion.  The course, therefore, challenges students to address not only “foreign” literatures and gender inequities but also unfamiliar, complex, and intellectually rigorous debates and concepts.  In providing experience with cross-cultural explorations alongside the analyses of gender, culture, and nation, and in providing an opportunity to focus on the complex intersections and interdependence of these various structures of power, this course has provided students with one of the most challenging and rewarding courses of their college career.  The course allows faculty to focus on areas (i.e., Southeast Asia or Latin America) and encourages greater attention to developing skills (i.e., integrating vocabulary into written projects or sustaining debates through online threaded-discussions).  

Learning Goals:  The enhanced WGS 376 / LIT 316 reflects the core values of WGS and English significantly in their commitment to cross-cultural explorations, leading to a greater understanding of the possibilities, limitations, and challenges of cross-cultural encounters and a greater respect for the cultural and intellectual diversity of the world.  Students, in focusing on women writers, will gain a greater awareness of underrepresented voices and the politics of self-representation.  Students, in focusing on several structures of power—for example, those structured upon gender and nation—will be challenged to break free of reductive representations of “the Other” and “the foreign” as well as stereotypes of gender roles.  Furthermore, in addressing concepts, such as “ethnocentrism,” “patriarchy,” “canon formation,” and “colonialism,” students will build an interdisciplinary vocabulary, conceptual framework, and multi-disciplinary methodology.  “Global Women Writers,” therefore, helps students to rethink disciplinary boundaries and question the production and legitimation of knowledge.  

Specifically, this course actively incorporates the following WGS program learning goals:

• Analyze historical and contemporary systems of privilege and oppression, with special attention to the ways gender intersects with race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and nationality

• Understand how all fields of knowledge are partial, situated, and have a political nature

• Apply feminist theories and current research to transcultural and transnational analysis of gender, systemic oppression, and women’s resistance and agency

 Specifically, this course actively incorporates the following English Department learning goals

• apply linguistic, literary, rhetorical, and cultural theory to texts and their contexts in order to elucidate complex issues and to suggest additional avenues of critical inquiry;
• bring their understanding of language to bear on their discussions of writing, whether literary or otherwise;
• recognize the impact of cultural environments upon language, respecting and understanding language diversity

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

A one credit Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in another language and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Please visit the LAC website at http://internationalstudies.intrasun.tcnj.edu or contact dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information. Students must meet with Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study by January 23.