English 243-001
Introduction to Literature by Women: Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, and Jeanette Winterson: Myth, Magic, and Hybridity
Instr: Erica Wiest
Office: CRT 508; 229-6022
e-mail: efwiest@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: MW; 11:00am-12:15pm; TBA
Course Description
This course will explore contemporary writing by women through a focus on three major figures: Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, and Jeanette Winterson. These three writers deal with subjects as diverse as slavery, the Napoleanic Wars, and traditional Mexican mythic figures. However, some of their novels have in common a narrative style that combines realism with fantastical, mythical, or magical occurrences and characters. From ghosts, to a girl with webbed feet, to a dead child resurrected, to spontaneous healing, we will explore how magic, myth, and hybrid characters might be used, in conjunction with history, to discuss issues of women's lives and identities. These three authors write from diverse backgrounds, and in this course we will bring questions of gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and class to bear on our discussions of women's identity in this literature.
Tentative List of Texts
The Song of Solomon and Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Passion and Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
So Far From God and The Mixquiahuala Letters by Ana Castillo
Selected critical essays and/or other material will be included in a course packet
