Women and Satire
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Bring 3 copies of your draft on Thursday, May 24, 2 for peer readers, 1 for AJVS.

By Sunday (May 27), e-mail your comments to the writers of the papers you read. Bring copies of these e-mails to peer conferences on May 29.

Writer-Peer-Instructor conference schedule

E106 | Women & Satire: From Juvenal to the Vagina Monologues| Spring 2012

Satire is both a radically disruptive and a deeply conservative form, and it often produces results that satirize the satirist as well as the explicit object of criticism.  Satires against women have at various times been a significant sub-genre. Juvenal’s great 2nd century tirade against women provided a pattern imitated for centuries by satirists who assumed a male normative and a male dominated culture.  Juvenal's satire excoriates women but at the same time creates an image of women as strangely powerful.  Women have also talked back, sometimes by satirizing male satirists, sometimes by defending women. The Vagina Monologues, the last work we will read (and if possible see), removes the satiric ground from satirists by allowing women to have their say from the point of view of their vaginas.  In this course we will read satires against women, satires in which women provide a vehicle for social critique, satires by women against men, and satires that assume or can imagine a female normative culture. We will also read criticism that deals both with questions of literary form and with historical issues brought into view by the satires.  E106 is the advanced seminar for English majors and has as prerequisites E01W (or its equivalent) and 2 other upper-division courses in the major.  Students will write a significant course paper, with drafts and peer critiques, and will also write informally for class and message board discussion.  Participation will be an important element of the course.

Course Information | Course Materials | Paper Page | Links | Mail Archive | Message board

 

DATES
Apr. 3-June 7

In class today

NB (Please note): Satire is aggressive. Sometimes a genre, sometimes an attitude, sometimes a mode, SATIRE IS INHERENTLY OFFENSIVE. Think about whether you want to take on the intellectual analysis of a form that necessarily 'hits' someone or something. The works we read may offend you.

Supporting Materials

Description of the English Major

Tuesday, Apr. 3Birth and Origin of the Papacy
"The Birth and Origin of the Pope"
Cranach on the Papacy

Introduction: What is satire?

Satire and the body: Satire's use of the body is a crucial element of the course. Look up embody in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary).

Some ancient views of women

Critical methods: We will make an effort to historicize the satires we read, and we will examine them as part of a literary historical tradition (these two methods sometimes overlap). And we will use "Gender" as an analytic category.
What is gender (noun) or gender (verb)?
------------------------------------
Start exploring Lefkowitz & Fant, Women's Life in Greece and Rome (on the Diotima site).

A look at the course web site

Very current trash talk about women along with defenses. We will use RL commentary to speculate about how far particular performances or texts can be said to represent cultural values.
Doonesbury
"A Boy to be Sacrificed" from NYT

Devil playing Martin Luther
The Devil Playing Martin Luther

Thursday, Apr. 5


Some ancient views of women continued:
a) Genesis
b)
Hesiod, Theogony, on the creation of women
c) Semonides, "Women" (Poem Seven), (from Diotima site)
c) Hesiod on Pandora from Works and Days
(Diotima site)

Juvenal (~55-140 CE), Satire VI - The great tirade against women--up to line 81 ("recalls some armoured thug, some idol of the arena.")

Prometheus and Pandora

Hesiod's Theogony, Myths and Meaning

Satire VI

Ancient History Source Book: Juvenal, Satire VI

Questions: Juvenal
Further Juvenal SQ by Students

Tuesday, Apr. 10

Juvenal, Satire VI, line 82 to line 345: "what altar does not attract its Clodius in drag?"

Lefkowitz and Fant, Women's Life in Greece and Rome (Diotima).
Women's "Legal Status in the Roman World,"
"Men's Opinions."

"Philosophers on the Role of Women"

 
Thursday, Apr. 12

Juvenal, Satire VI -to end of poem.
Conversation on the Message board: 
Let's imagine that this poem is not mainly about marriage or about women.  What is it about?  And why are women and marriage good vehicles?  Try to draw at least some examples for your reasoning from the last part of the poem.

In-class writing CONTEST

Start reading J. Scott, "Preface to the Revised Edition" of Gender and the Politics of History and "Some More Reflections on Gender and Politics."

Alexis de Tocqueville, "How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes"

 

 

 

For Joan Scott essays, please see email.

Tuesday, Apr. 17

Due: Bring to class a draft of your paper on Juvenal. Peer reading in class.

Discussion of J. Scott, "Preface to the Revised Edition" of Gender and the Politics of History and "Some More Reflections on Gender and Politics."

 

Please print out the Scott materials and bring them to class.

Sample draft (AJVS)

Juvenal VI. Youtube

Juvenal entry Encyclopedia. com

Men Going Their Own Way Forum: Satire VI

Guide to Juvenal VI

SQ for Joan Scott material

Thursday, Apr. 19

Some dates that will help you think about Juvenal

Continue discussion of Scott

Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Family: "Roman Family Relations and the Law" and "Marriage." See email.

 
Tuesday, Apr. 24

Paper #1 due: 3-page paper, with 1-page commentary.

"The Men's Tribune," a very useful anti-feminist, pro-male site

Continued discussion of the Scott and Dixon.

Discussion of paper topics

Women in Ancient Rome

Review of Dixon's The Roman Family by Nicholas F. Jones Journal of Social History, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Spring, 1994), pp. 627-629
Thursday, Apr. 26 Late Antiquity and the Medieval period: The Church Fathers from Woman Defamed and Woman Defended ( pp. 50-82). Read the whole section but pay special attention to Jerome and Augustine.

Questions: the Church Fathers
ascetic (OED)
Tuesday, May 1

Introduction to Women Defamed and Women Defended.  "The Book of the Wiles of Women" (130-135); The Lamentatons of Matheolus (177-197).

Preface, and 3 articles from Satiric Advice on Women and Marriage. From Plautus to Chaucer: "Preface";
Elizabeth A. Clark, “Dissuading from Marriage: Jerome and the Asceticization of Satire”;
Barbara Feichtinger, “Change and Continuity in Pagan and Christian (Invective) Thought on Women and Marriage from Antiquity to the Middle Ages”;
P. G. Walsh, “Antifeminism in the High Middle Ages”

Satiric Advice on Women and Marriage. From Plautus to Chaucer
Thursday, May 3 Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" (198-222).
Jerome, Against Jovinianus, Book I. 
(Book II - Link in case you want to read further)
 
Tuesday, May 8 Christine de Pizan, The Letter of the God of Love, The Quarrel of the Rose, The City of Ladies (278-302).  Questions: Wife of Bath and Christine de Pizan
Thursday, May 10 17th & 18th c.: John Oldham, "Satyr Upon a Woman, Who by her Falshood and Scorn was the Death of my Friend" (1678). This edition is in 1710. For interesting comparison see edition of 1770: Satire upon...

Questions: Oldham

DNB entry: Oldham See also link to DNB archive.

Tuesday, May 15

Robert Gould, Love Given O're (1682) from Satires on Women.  Introduction to Satires on Women.

waving-guy-gifSEE DIY directions in email.

Annotated Bibliography DUE

DISCUSSION OF TOPICS FOR PAPER #2.
Post a "writing-thoughts" entry on the message board. IDEALLY, you would post your topic and your tentative claim, but TOPIC and first thoughts are enough.

Questions: Gould
DNB entry: Gould. See also link to DNB Archive.

Sign-up sheet for Writer-Peer-Instructor conferences.

SIGN UP early to get the best times.

Sample annotated bibliography entry

Notes leading to annotation

Thursday, May 17  Richard Ames, The Folly of Love (1691) and Sarah Fige, The Female Advocate" (1687) from Satires on Women.
 
You should decide on a paper topic by today's class session.

Questions: Ames
DNB entry: Ames

DNB entry: Fige (or Fyge)

Tuesday, May 22

Jonathan Swift,  "The Lady's Dressing Room"(1730). Lady Mary Wortley Montague, "The Reasons that Induced Dr S to write a Poem called 'The Lady's Dressing Room'" (1732-4 ). 
See also Mary Evelyn, "Mundis Muliebris: or, The Ladies Dressing-Room Unlock'd" (1690).
See also Mundus foppensis: or, the fop display'd Being the ladies vindication, in answer to a late pamphlet, entituled, Mundus muliebris: or, the ladies dressing-room unlock'd, &c. In burlesque. Together with a short supplement to the fop-dictionary: compos'd for the use of the town-beaus, 1691.

Please read and respond to items on the annotated bibliographies of 2 other students.

DNB entry: Swift

Last day to sign up for conferences on Paper #2.

The Lady's Dressing Room - interpretation || Youtube

Another interpretation || Youtube

Thursday, May 24

Drafts of Paper #2 due.  By Sunday (May 27), e-mail your comments to the writers of the papers you read. Bring copies of these e-mails to peer conferences on May 29.

Further discussion of Lady's Dressing Room poems
Let's also look at "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" (see Links page).

 

P E E R---R E A D I N G

G U I D E L I N E S

Tuesday, May 29

Writer-Peer-Instructor conference schedule

No regular class session & no regular office hours

 
Thursday, May 31 Vagina Monologues.  We hope to find a production that we can see during the quarter.

Eve Ensler bio: Americans who tell the truth

May 14, 2012 in the Huffington Post

Eve Ensler

Tuesday, June 5 Vagina Monologues  
Thursday, June 7 Final papers due. 10-12 pages plus 1 to 2-page commentary.

waving guy gif || CHECKLIST

Review the checklist before turning in your paper.