Module Code - Title:
EH6042
-
FEMINIST LITERARY THEORY
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
To familiarise students with a substantial body of feminist and gender theory and to present current developments in the field; to demonstrate how students might apply these theories to literary texts; to provide students with critical methodologies for the analysis of gender in literary texts.
Syllabus:
This course will examine feminist and gender theories of literature and culture and will test their practical applications in the analysis of a range of women's writing. The emphasis of the course will be on exploring the relation between theory and practice: theories will be tested out in terms of their relevance to the literary texts under discussion. Topics for particular attention may include: Woman as writer: questions of canonicity and literary value; the concept of a female literary tradition; writing as revision. Psychoanalytic and poststructuralist feminist theories: writing and sexual difference; writing the body. The politics of location: theorising class, race, nation, and ethnicity; postcolonial theory. Writing gender and sexuality: lesbian criticism and queer theory; writing beyond sex and gender.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Recognise and identify central arguments in feminist literary theory.
Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctions between different approaches in feminist literary theory.
Construct a critical framework that offers a feminist approach to an analysis of literature.
Apply this critical framework to an analysis of a range of texts on the course, in both essay and presentation format.
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:
Eagleton, Mary (ed.) (2011)
Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader (3rd edn)
, Blackwell
Whelehan, Imelda and Jane Pilcher (2004)
50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies
, Sage
Butler, Judith (2006)
Gender Trouble
, Routledge
Other Relevant Texts:
Robbins, Ruth (2000)
Literary Feminisms
, Palgrave
Gamble, Sarah (2001)
The Routledge Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism
, Routledge
Bowden, Peta and Mummery, Jane (2009)
Understanding Feminism
, Acumen
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
sinead.mcdermott@ul.ie