EGO-128: Imagining Women: Representations in Literature and Cinema- One Credit course open for PG Students and General Public
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EGO 128 Imagining Women: Representations in Literature and Cinema
(One credit course for PG Students and open for General Public)
From 26th September to 6th October, 2016
by
Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Chair in Comparative Literature, Goa University
Open for students and General public
LAST DATE TO REGISTER- 12th September, 2016
List of selected credit students to be displayed on 13th September, 2016
Venue- Conference Hall, Main Administrative Building, Goa University
This course would extend the key concepts covered in my earlier course on “The Gender of Literatures and the Literatures of Gender” and introduce students to the diverse ways in which literary classics are being re-examined and re-interpreted. Since cinema is a principal medium of such re-interpretation, it would take up known and not so well known (even unknown to most students) novels and their cinema versions, and critique the two individually and in conjunction. The emphasis would remain on Literature (i.e. the written text) but our study would encourage students to relate it to contemporary critical developments and ways in which emergent ideologies could make one reassess what seems known and familiar.
In discussing the novels and the films we would try and decode how changing times and circumstances transform perceptions and criteria in any postcolonial review of both genres. The novels and films that would be covered in detail include: Jane Eyre; The Hours; and Persepolis. The course would also cover other literary texts and well-known fairy tales (e.g. Snow White) to indicate how newer critical studies have impacted the old and familiar. A re-examination of Jane Eyre for example would look at the theme of the “madwoman in the attic” and how a single seminal critical study could generate a whole different approach to the text and to representations of women in literature and cinema.
The class would be required to respond to what they see, to read each text, and write an assignment of 20 marks in the second week. In addition, 5 marks would be reserved for class attendance, participation and evidence that the prescribed material has been read and thought about.
Enrollment Prerequisites: Students as well as those of the general public who enroll are expected to read the prescribed texts and express cogent responses during class discussions. No allowances will be made for absences or failure to adhere to the prescribed syllabus.
Enrolment Limit- Only 25 students will be selected to offer this as a credit course. Others and general public will be permitted to attend the course and certificate will be awarded for attending all the sessions.
Grading: 20 Marks would be reserved for the written assignment, 5 for continued interaction and participation. Marks would be deducted for unauthorised absences or whimsical analyses based on individual rather than prescribed reading. Students would be encouraged to bring in their knowledge but the core emphasis would have to be on the prescribed readings.
Reading List:
Main Reading-
- Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre;
- Michael Cunningham: The Hours;
- Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis;
and Selections from:
- Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination;
- Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, eds: Shakespeare’s Sisters;
- Virginia Woolf: “Professions for Women”, in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays;
- Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own;
- Elaine Showalter: A Literature of Their Own; British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing;
- Gayatri Spivak essay “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism”;
- Azar Nafisi: Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Class schedule:
Monday, 26 September: 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, 27 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, 28 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Thursday, 29 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Monday, 3 October: 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, 4 October: 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Thursday, 6 October: 2:00-4:00 p.m.: Examination/Class written test; 2 hours
Tentative Schedule of Screening of films during the class hours:-
Tuesday, 27 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m. (screening of Jane Eyre);Wednesday, 28 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m. (screening of The Hours);
Thursday, 29 September: 2:00-4:30 p.m. screening of Persepolis.
Course coordinator- Prof Kiran Budkuley, Head, Dept of English
VRPP Coordinator- Ramrao Wagh, [email protected]
Annexure 1- Syllabus for the Credit Course as approved by Goa University:
Course Title: EGO-128: Imagining Women: Representations in Literature and Cinema Course Credit: 01 Marks allotted: 25
Course duration: 15 clock hours. (to be held during September-October 2016)
Course description: This course would extend some of the key concepts covered in the earlier course on “The Gender of Literatures and the Literatures of Gender”. It would take into account current global trends with respect to the interdisciplinary aspects of literary studies and introduce students to the diverse ways in which literary classics are being re-examined and re-interpreted. Since cinema is a principal medium of such re-interpretation, it would take up known and not so well known (even unknown to most students) novels and their cinema versions, and critique the two individually and in conjunction. The two-week one-credit course would aim at a rewarding expansion of both imaginary and critical horizons. The emphasis would remain on Literature (i.e. the written text) but the study would encourage students to relate it to contemporary critical developments and the ways in which emergent ideologies can make one reassess what seems known and familiar.
Course content: The following literary texts and their celluloid versions, namely, Jane Eyre; Jude the Obscure; Devi; The Hours; and Persepolis would be taken up for study. For example, a re-examination of Jane Eyre would look at the theme of the “madwoman in the attic” and how this seminal critical study sparked off a whole different approach to the text and to the representations of women in art and literature. The films and the novels would be discussed in some detail to try and decode how changing times and circumstances transform perceptions and the criteria that enter any postcolonial review of both genres.
Assessment: The class would be required to respond to what they see, to read each text, and write an assignment of 20 marks in the second week. In addition; 5 marks would be reserved for class attendance, participation and evidence that the prescribed material has been read and thought about.
Enrollment Prerequisites: Students who enroll are expected to read the prescribed texts and express cogent responses during class discussions. No allowances will be made for absences or failure to adhere to the prescribed syllabus.
Grading: 20 Marks would be reserved for the written assignment, 5 for continued interaction and participation. Marks would be deducted for unauthorised absences or whimsical analyses based on individual rather than prescribed reading. Students would be encouraged to bring in their knowledge but the core emphasis would have to be on the prescribed readings.
