everything.study
ES.260

Women's Novels: A Weekly Book Club

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2006

This pass/fail seminar should be a fun setting where we can all enjoy a love of good books together. Students will read approximately one novel every two weeks, and the class will discuss each novel in a relaxed and interactive setting, with attention to whatever themes and issues interest them most about each book. We will read a wide mixture of classic and contemporary novels written by women, including: Edith Wharton, _The House of Mirth_; Toni Morrison, _Jazz_; Virginia Woolf, _Mrs. Dalloway_; Alice Walker, _The Color Purple_; Charlotte Brontë, _Jane Eyre_; Sheri Reynolds, _The Rapture of Canaan_; Jane Austen, _Pride and Prejudice_; and Sylvia Plath, _The Bell Jar_. Recurrent issues likely to be discussed include: gender, race, and class; romance, love, and marriage; depression and suicide; and conception, childbirth, and parenthood.

Readings

  • Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice . New York, NY: Bantam Classics, 1983. ISBN: 9780553213102. (See an annotated version of the text online at the Republic Of Pemberly.)
    Listed reading
  • Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre . New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1997. ISBN: 9780451526557. (Download a version of this text from Project Gutenburg.)
    Listed reading
  • Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth . New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2000. ISBN: 9780451527561. (Download a version of this text from Project Gutenburg.)
    Listed reading
  • Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway . 1st ed. San Diego, CA: Harvest Books, 1990. ISBN: 9780156628709.
    Listed reading
  • Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar . New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN: 9780060837020.
    Listed reading
  • Walker, Alice. The Color Purple . San Diego, CA: Harvest Books, 2003. ISBN: 9780156028356.
    Listed reading
  • Morrison, Toni. Jazz . New York, NY: Vintage, 2004. ISBN: 9781400076215.
    Listed reading
  • Reynolds, Sheri. The Rapture of Canaan . New York, NY: Berkley Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780425162446.
    Listed reading
  • Atwood, Margaret. “ Marrying the Hangman .” 1978. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Plath, Sylvia. “The Applicant.” 1962.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 2 · TOPICS: Toni Morrison: Jazz · READINGS: pp. 1-114.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 3 · TOPICS: Toni Morrison: Jazz (cont.) · READINGS: pp. 115-229.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 4 · TOPICS: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice · READINGS: Chapters 1-35, pp. 1-174.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 5 · TOPICS: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (cont.) · READINGS: Chapters 36-61, pp. 175-334.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 6 · TOPICS: Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway · READINGS: pp. 1-102, through “…that she did not like that man.”
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 7 · TOPICS: Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway (cont.) · READINGS: pp. 102-192.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 8 · TOPICS: Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth · READINGS: Book 1, pp. 1-189.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 9 · TOPICS: Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth (cont.) · READINGS: Book 2, pp. 190-350.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 10 · TOPICS: Sheri Reynolds: The Rapture of Canaan · READINGS: Entire book.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 11 · TOPICS: Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre · READINGS: Chapters 1-22, pp. 1-251.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 12 · TOPICS: Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (cont.) · READINGS: Chapters 23-38, pp. 252-461.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 13 · TOPICS: Alice Walker: The Color Purple · READINGS: Entire book.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 14 · TOPICS: Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar · READINGS: Entire book.
    Reading assignment
Sources