Module Code - Title:
EH4027
-
CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S WRITING
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
To introduce students to key texts and themes in contemporary women's writing; to introduce students to critical methodologies for the analysis of gender in literary texts.
Syllabus:
This course will introduce students to a number of key fictions by British and North American women authors, written between the 1970s and the present day. We will examine the ways in which these fictions respond to the changes in female experience in the second half of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, as well as exploring how these fictions reflect upon, and re-figure, conventional understandings of gender identity. Key issues for discussion will be the ways in which the texts respond to their social and cultural contexts, and how gender identity is shaped by location and place in these fictions. We will also explore the significant motifs that emerge across texts, such as women and madness; mother-daughter relationships; femininity and desire; fantasy and romance; the body; and the writing of race and gender.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Identify key texts and themes in contemporary fiction by Anglophone women writers.
Examine ways in which these writers represent the experiences of women in society.
Assess ways in which these fictions confirm or challenge conventional understandings of gender identity.
Compare the ways in which women writers from different generations and cultural locations have responded to questions of gender.
Discuss the role of sexuality in contemporary womens writing.
Discuss the role of race and ethnicity in contemporary womens writing.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
N/A
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
N/A
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
N/A
Prime Texts:
Atwood, Margaret (1985)
The Handmaids Tale
, Vintage
Carter, Angela (1979)
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
, Vintage
Morrison, Toni (1987)
Beloved
, Vintage
Tan, Amy (1989)
The Joy Luck Club
, Vintage
Winterson, Jeanette (1992)
Written on the Body
, Vintage
Waters, Sarah (2002)
Fingersmith
, Virago
Other Relevant Texts:
Joannou, Maroula (2001)
Contemporary Womens Writing
, Manchester University Press
Heilmann, Ann and Mark Llewellyn (eds) (2007)
Metafiction and Metahistory in Contemporary Womens Writing
, Palgrave
Plate, Liedeke (2010)
Transforming Memories in Contemporary Womens Rewriting
, Palgrave
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
sinead.mcdermott@ul.ie