Library holdings and electronic resources
Internet
Course booklet (critical material and short stories)

There has been a shift in the literary treatment of female domesticity (sex, marriage, child-rearing, housework) which reflects both the ideals of Anglo-American second-wave feminism and the real lives of women in post-war Britain and the US. We will look at the relation between early consciousness-raising fiction and other feminist calls-to-arms, which represent domesticity as drudgery symptomatic of patriarchal oppression. In fiction this hard-line stance was succeeded by an increasing ambivalence towards domesticity. We will examine the relationship between French Feminism, with its positive stress on 'writing the body' and this shift in fiction. Finally, we will discuss the label of 'post-feminism' in relation to a recent tendency to foreground the pleasurable aspects of domesticity. We will consider the thesis that this kind of fiction functions as leisure porn for a time-poor generation of working women. Students will be encouraged throughout to consider the relationship between literary fiction, socio-political context, and the representation of relevant issues in popular media such as women's magazines.

Teaching will be delivered via two-hour weekly workshops, incorporating short lectures where appropriate.

Key Information Set:
16% scheduled teaching and learning activities
84% guided independent learning

Portfolio of 3,000 words [100% meeting LO's 1-4]

This is likely to include a 2,000 word essay and 1,000 word equivalent forum contribution

Creative Writing students will have the opportunity to submit a short story, drama or poems in the genre of second or third-wave feminist writing, aligned to the texts studied on this module. This should be accompanied by 500-word critical introduction detailing how you have used the concerns, tone and motifs of the genre. A one-off two-hour creative writing workshop will be arranged for creative writing students who want to do this option.

Key Information Set:
100% coursework

Betty Friedan (1963). The Feminine Mystique. Penguin Modern Classics, 2010
Sylvia Plath (1963), The Bell Jar (Faber, 2005)
Germaine Greer (1970). The Female Eunuch. Harper Perennial, 2006.
Faye Weldon (1971). Down Among the Women
Helene Cixous (1975). The Laugh of the Medusa
Marilyn French (1977). The Women’s Room. Virago, 1997.
Toni Morrison (1970), The Bluest Eye (Vintage, 1999)
Alice Walker (1982), The Color Purple (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2014)
Michele Roberts (1992). Daughters of the House. Virago, 1993.
Rachel Cusk, Aftermath (2012)

1. DEMONSTRATE AN INFORMED ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GENRE OF DOMESTIC FICTION IN ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND BE ABLE TO COMMENT ON ITS RELATION WITH CONTEMPORARY POLITICS, THEORY AND POPULAR CULTURAL FORMS.
[Knowledge and Understanding]

2. ENGAGE CRITICALLY WITH A VARIETY OF CRITICAL AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE OBJECT OF STUDY.
[Learning]

3. CONSTRUCT A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL MAP OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN TEXT, THEORY AND GENRE VIA INDEPENDENT RESEARCH.
[Enquiry]

4. DISPLAY COMPETENCE IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION VIA ESSAY.
[Communication]