Spring 2006 Courses

English 352: Gender and Sociopolitical Activism in 20th Century Feminist Utopias (Sarker)

T/TH - 1:00-2:30 pm, Old Main 010

‘U-topia’ means ‘a place (topos) that doesn’t exist’ and ‘Eu-topia’ means ‘a good place.’ Implicit as well as explicit in much of the 20th century’s feminist critical analysis of the state of society and its politics is a desire for a better state yet-to-be (utopia) as well as a fear of catastrophe or nightmare (dystopia). This course investigates how women's literary writing from different parts of the world (Bangladeshi, British, African-American, Canadian, to name a few) produce visions of the present and the future, of the real and the imagined, beliefs about masculinity and femininity, socialist and capitalist philosophies, modernity, the environment (ecotopia), and various technologies including cybergenetics. Writers included are Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, and Marge Piercy. Literary, political, and philosophical theories—such as those of Seyla Benhabib, Donna Haraway, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas More, Paula Moya, Gayatri Spivak, Alexis de Tocqueville, Virginia Woolf—will inform our readings. The collection of texts is intended also to provide us with genealogies to construct as well as analyze our own fantasies of sociopolitical change.

Spring 2006 Course Listings