ENGD80 Women and Canadian Writing: Sexual & Textual Politics
Instructor: Marlene Goldman
Class Meets: Tues. 11 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Office hours: H 321, TBA and by appointment
e-mail: mgoldman@chass.utoronto.ca
tel. at Scarborough: (416) 287-7157
In this class, we will explore how Canadian women writers engage with wide-ranging political issues and events including Canada’s treatment of Native peoples, the sexual abuse of Mennonite women, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In our analyses of the texts under consideration, we will be adopting predominantly feminist theoretical frameworks. These theoretical tools will help us to probe the writers’ choice of genres—which range from autobiography, to biography, to the novel—and to better understand the authors’ decision to present complex political issues from a personal, individual perspective.
A key facet of this course entails choosing a scene from a text on the syllabus and adapting it for film. During the second half of the term, we will be working together on developing a screenplay, understanding the impact of art design, location, costumes, props. story-boarding shots, sound effects, and music.
Guest lecturers include the Governor General award-winning videographer Midi Onodera, and New York film maker and photographer Corrnie Botz. A screening of student films will be held in conjunction with Scarborough Arts, date TBA.
Required Reading:
B. Sellars, They Called Me Number One
M. Toews, Women Talking
M. Thein, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
A selection of short stories by Alice Munro, M. Atwood, and Dionne Brand
Note: we may read another short novel, TBA
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