32202

WiSe 12/13: Women's Studies Revisited

Birgit Michaelis

Kommentar

In 1963 Betty Friedan published her survey The Feminine Mystique which is considered as a founding text of the US-American second women's movement. Fifty years later this course will re-examine 'classical' feminist texts such as The Feminine Mystique and Kate Millett's Sexual Politics and trace the origins and development of the women's movement's academic branch: women's studies and later gender studies. A special focus will be laid on feminist literary criticism. The questions: When and how is / or can academic research and writing such as literary criticism be political (or not) and What were the relationships between academia and feminist politics will be the guiding questions for this course. Close readings of essays such as Annette Kolodny's Dancing through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism (1980) are meant to shed light on the intricate relations between politics, writing and academia. Due to the transnational character of both, the second women's movement and academia, texts by European feminists will also be taken into account. French feminist theory will be explored through the works of Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray as yet another way to politicise writing. Recommended reading in preparation for this class: Virginia Woolf, A Room Of One's Own (1929) Robin Morgan, Sisterhood Is Powerful (1970) Dani Cavallaro, French Feminist Theory: An Introduction (2003) Alice Ginsberg, ed., The Evolution of American Women's Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies and Change (2009) Schließen