Engl
250L: American Women Writers
Course
Description
Marriage, sex,
children, politics, religion, racism, and social
corruption: these topics form some of the enduring concerns
of American women writers through the centuries. In this
course, we will examine how American women have addressed
these themes, beginning our study with the heresy trial of
Anne Hutchinson, continuing through the rise of the
seduction novel and reform writings, and concluding with
the sophisticated artistry of poet Emily Dickinson and
novelist Elizabeth Stoddard. As we examine the literary
dimensions of women’s experience in early America, we will
also ask how women writers have represented, resisted, and
modified the idea of femininity itself.