This course is designed to critically examine the changing role of women and their reproductive labor in literature. Through reading a variety of literary texts such as Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), Ann Petry’s The Street (1946), Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman” (1975), and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), we will investigate how women across class and color lines negotiate and redefine their feminine subjectivities through the discourse of domesticity and the practice of housework. In this reading and writing intensive class, students are required to actively participate in class activities and discussions. Assignments include presentations, weekly in-class writing, GoPost reading responses, and three 5-page research papers (revisions required).

*This course satisfies the University of Washington’s “W” requirement.

Required Texts:
Ann Petry, The Street
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Course Pack (available at the AVE copy center)