AJ24054 Contemporary British Women Novelists

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Mon 15:00–16:35 G32
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
Writing as a woman about women does not necessarily involve feminism. In the course we will read six 1980s and 1990s novels by British women novelists to see how they approach the lives and concerns of women. Apart from gender issues we will explore how the novels work within the context of contemporary British writing and society. The following novels will be discussed: Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger, A. S. Byatt's Still Life, Jeanette Winterson's Gut Symmetries, Margaret Drabble's The Radiant Way, Marina Warner's The Leto Bundle, and Jane Gardam's Crusoe's Daughter. The course will develop the students' skills of critical reading, literary analysis and work with secondary literature.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction Week 2: Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger Problematising history Week 3: Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger Women issues, narrative voices Week 4: Fay Weldon: The Shrapnel Academy Social/political satire, feminism Week 5: Jeanette Winterson: Gut Symmetries the narrative voice, time and space Week 6: Jeanette Winterson: Gut Symmetries Winterson's other works Week 7: A.S. Byatt: Still Life Intertextuality, realism Week 8: A.S. Byatt: Still Life Women's lives, Britain in the 1950s Week 9: Margaret Drabble: The Radiant Way Social concerns, womens' lives Week 10: Margaret Drabble: The Radiant Way Chronicles: the novel as a document Week 11: Jane Gardam: Crusoe's Daughter Growing up (un)free, changing times Week 12: Jane Gardam: Crusoe's Gaughter "Angels and Deamons - the anatomy of a novel"
Literature
  • BYATT, A. S. Still life. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1986, 358 s. ISBN 0-14-010763-0. info
  • DRABBLE, Margaret. The radiant way :a novel. London: Penguin Books, 1988, 396 s. ISBN 0-14-010168-3. info
  • GARDAM, Jane. Crusoe's daughter. London: Abacus, 1986, 224 s. ISBN 0-349-11410-2. info
  • LIVELY, Penelope. Moon tiger. New York: Harper Perennial, 1989, 208 s. ISBN 0060972009. info
  • WELDON, Fay. The Shrapnel academy. Kent: Coronet Books, 1987, 203 s. ISBN 0-340-39875-2. info
  • WINTERSON, Jeanette. Gut symmetries. London: Granta Books, 1997, 219 s. ISBN 1-86207-042-3. info
  • FRANKOVÁ, Milada. Britské spisovatelky na konci tisíciletí (British Women Writers at the End of the Millennium). 1st ed. Brno: Masarykova univerzita v Brně, 1999, 206 pp. Spisy Masarykovy univerzity v Brně, FF, č. 325. ISBN 80-210-2148-9. info
  • FRANKOVÁ, Milada. Britské spisovatelky na přelomu tisíciletí (British Women Writers at the Turn of the Millennium). Brno: Masarykova univerzita v Brně, 2003. Spisy Masarykovy univerzity v Brně, 347. ISBN 80-210-3290-1. info
  • MASSIE, Allan. The novel today : a critical guide to the British novel, 1970-1989. London: Longman, 1990, vi, 97. ISBN 0582004071. info
  • MOI, Toril. Sexual/textual politics : feminist literary theory. London: Routledge, 1985, xv, 206. ISBN 0415029740. info
  • Feminist literary theory :a reader. Edited by Mary Eagleton. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996, xxiii, 438. ISBN 0-631-19734-6. info
  • GREER, Germaine. The whole woman. [Velká Británie]: Anchor, 2000, 452 s. ISBN 1-86230-057-7. info
  • EAGLETON, Terry. Literary theory :an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983, viii, 244. ISBN 0-631-13259-7. info
Assessment methods
Course participation, contributions to discussion, end-of-term essay
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
Credit evaluation note: 2 původní kredity.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Autumn 2001, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
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