Unit information: Twentieth-Century Women Writers in 2011/12

Unit name	Twentieth-Century Women Writers
Unit code	ENGL30105
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Jones
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will explore the work of a wide range of twentieth-century women writers. Authors will usually include: Virginia Woolf, Radcliffe Hall, Elizabeth Bowen, Rebecca West, Rosamond Lehmann, Rose Macaulay, Stevie Smith, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Jennings, Michele Roberts, Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood, Alice Thomas Ellis. Topics explored will usually include: autobiographical writing, sexuality, androgyny, motherhood, spirituality, utopian and dystopian fiction, food.

The Aims of this course are to enable students:

• to become familiar with a wide range of twentieth-century writing by women

• to explore a range of genres, for example, autobiography, utopian fiction

• to become familiar with critical responses, feminist and other, to such writing

• to think critically about the concept of womens writing

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students should:

• Be familiar with a wide range of literary texts by women writing in the twentieth century

• Be able to show understanding of a range of critical responses to these texts

• Be able to construct a reasoned argument supported by appropriate use of evidence and analysis.

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hour seminar per week in one teaching block, plus 1-to-1 discussion in Consultation Hours where desired.

Assessment Information

1 Short essay (2000 words max) and 1 Long essay (4000 words max). Both summative.

Reading and References

• Virginia Woolf, Orlando

• Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems

• Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

• Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris

• Modern Women Poets D. Rees-Jones

• Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman