Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE ENG2063

 
TITLE Theories of Literature 3: Gender and Power

 
UM LEVEL 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 2

 
DEPARTMENT English

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit aims to investigate issues of difference as a systematic foundation for gender inequality.

The study-unit examines the extent to which ‘difference’ is not a biological principle but a cultural construct which is embedded in language and society and reflected in literature and structures of power. It will begin with a brief history of feminism before proceeding to other considerations. Attention will be given to the construction of literary canons; to the institution of literature in universities; to the various perceptions of the relationship between literature and life; to the role of the author; and to the cultural creation of the gendered subject through language.

Reading List:

Cameron, Deborah, ed., The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader (London: Routledge, 1990)
de Beauvoir, Simone, The Second Sex (1949; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983)
During, Simon, Foucault and Literature: Towards a Genealogy of Writing (London: Routledge, 1992)
Foucault, Michel, ‘What is an Author?’ (1979). [English translation available in many readers on literary theory and on Foucault]
Millet, Kate, Sexual Politics (London: Virago, 1977)
Morris, Pam, Literature and Feminism: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993)
NcNay, Lois, Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992)
Showalter, Elaine, A Literature of Their Own: From Charlotte Bronte to Doris Lessing, rev. edn (London: Virago, 1999)
Woolf, Virginia, A Room of One’s Own (1929; London: Penguin, 2002)

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Aaron Aquilina

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit