Course Description
Traces the development of feminism in France, beginning with Simone de Beauvoir's path-breaking book The Second Sex and including such authors as Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous, and Julia Kristeva, Monique Wittig, Antoinette Fouque and others.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be asked to read greater amounts of
primary source material (full books as opposed to chapters or
excerpts and more historical/contextual material), to write
longer and more complex papers (minimum 20 pages of publishable
or near-publishable quality) integrating a number of
theoretical concerns, and will be expected to give class
presentations on their papers. They will also be asked to meet
outside of class with other graduate students to discuss the
course's theoretical concepts and to lead class discussions.
Athena Title
FRENCH FEMINISMS
Undergraduate Prerequisite
WMST 4010/6010
Graduate Prerequisite
WMST 4010/6010
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn to understand and evaluate the range of arguments presented by French feminists during the last half of the twentieth century and up to the present time. They will compare French positions with those set forth by Anglophone writers studied in other Women’s Studies courses. The assigned reading and writing assignments will enable them to strengthen their academic skills. Graduate students will further strengthen their skills in developing and sustaining relevant positions by writing a long paper and presenting their analyses in class.
Topical Outline
Week 1: Introduction Background material (historical, literary, and theoretical) Weeks 2-5: Simone de Beauvoir Topics: Social construction of feminine identity, feminist ethics, women and the body, old age Readings: The Second Sex, The Ethics of Ambiguity, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, A Very Easy Death Films: viewings of selections from several existing films about Beauvoir and Sartre Weeks 6-7: Julia Kristeva Topic: Psychoanalytic bases of French feminism Readings: Black Sun, Kristeva Reader (ed. Toril Moi), Powers of Horror Film: Julia Kristeva Weeks 8-9: Hélène Cixous Topic: Women’s writing (“l’écriture féminine”) Readings: The Newly Born Woman, Dora, The Laugh of the Medusa Film: Hélène Cixous Weeks 10-11: Luce Irigaray Topic: Gender and sexuality Readings: Speculum of the Other Woman, This Sex Which Is Not One Weeks 12-13: Monique Wittig Topic: Queer theory Readings: The Guérillères, The Lesbian Body, selected essays Weeks 14-15: Contemporary feminism Topic: What has gone on in the 1990s and into the twenty-first century Selected readings available in translation and exploration of web materials