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What's NEW?
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 |
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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. 3
"The Birth and Origin of the Pope"
Cranach on the Papacy
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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)?
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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 |
The Devil Playing Martin Luther
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Thursday, Apr. 5
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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.")
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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
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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" |
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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
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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. |
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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
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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”
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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) |
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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.
SEE 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
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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 |
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Thursday, June 7 |
Final papers due. 10-12 pages plus 1 to 2-page commentary.
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|| CHECKLIST
Review the checklist before turning in your paper. |
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