Feminist Fiction

Module code: EN3102

This module explores the relationship between feminism and fiction from proto-feminism in the 1960s through Second Wave feminism in the 1970s and 1980s to Third Wave or Postfeminism from the 1990s on. It challenges traditional ideas about the subject, form, range and quality of writing by women and gives students the opportunity to develop their understanding of the ways in which gender shapes literature and literary studies.The module explores key themes and issues in women’s writing: identity and selfhood, sisterhood, sexuality, marriage, motherhood and mother-daughter relationships, madness, and masculinity. It pays particular attention to the ways in which class, race and sexuality intersect with gender to shape subjectivity. The module considers the relationship between gender and genre and explores the different ways in which women writers position themselves in relation to an overwhelmingly male literary tradition (rejection, appropriation, revision, subversion). Authors who feature on this module include Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Pat Barker, Jeanette Winterson, and Helen Fielding.