The
Basics
Critical methods
We will historicize the satires we read, and we will examine them as part of a literary-historical tradition. We will also use "gender" as an analytic category.
Class time & place:
Office: 144 KH
Email: ajvansan@uci.edu
Office hours:
Tuesday: 5:00-6:00
Thursday: 2:30-3:30
Class mailing list: 23456-S14@classes.uci.edu
Course code: 23456
Shall we create our own T-shirt?
Prize for the best design. To be decided by a class vote. Designs submitted anonymously.Who would like to be in charge of this project?
Course Description
Satire is both a radically disruptive and a deeply conservative form, and it often produces results that satirize the satirist as much 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.
"According to Satire VI by Juvenal, Messalina worked in a brothel under the assumed name Lycisca, or 'The Wolf-Girl'. Etching by Agostino Carracci, late 16th century." Wikipedia.
Required Texts
Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires (Penguin Classics) by Juvenal, Peter Green (Translator). (Paper); ISBN: 078-0-14-044704-0.
Woman Defamed and Woman Defended : An Anthology of Medieval Texts ed., Alcuin Blamires. Paperback (November 1992) Oxford Univ Press; ISBN: 0198710399.
Satires on Women, Introduction by: Felicity A. Nussbaum. A M S Press, Inc. (1976), ISBN: 0404701809. Contains R. Gould, Love given o're (1682); Sarah Fige, The Female advocate (1687); & Richard Ames, The Folly of love (1691).
NB: This book is no longer in print. It is available, however. I'll explain.
Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues. Paperback,
You will need to duplicate some materials and download others from the web.
Course Requirements
What counts what?
CHECK THE WEBSITE TO KEEP UP WITH THE COURSE.
Check your UCI email at least on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
Attendance (course grade reduced for more than 2 absenses)
Participation
15%
Informal writing (often used in class)
Reading/commenting on work of peers
Class and Message board discussion
Paper #1: 3 pages plus draft and commentary 20%
Annotated Bibliography: 15%
Paper #2: 12-15 pages with draft. Commentary. 50%