Old World/New World Women
3.0
creditsAverage Course Rating
The course considers the transatlantic writing of three women in the early modern period, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, and Phillis Wheatley. We will consider issues of identity, spatiality, religion, commerce, enforced labor, sexuality, race, and gender, along with literary tradition, formal analysis and poetics. We will read a good deal of these early women writers. Foremost in our mind will be the question of how perceptions of space and time are mediated through the global experiences of early modernity.
Spring 2015
Professor: Sharon Achinstein
Professor Achinstein’s interactive and supportive atmospheres were the best parts of this class. Students appreciated the thoughtful conversations that arose in class as wel as the thorough and helpful feedback that they received on assignments. Several students agreed that they did not find the in-class debates to be fruitful or the best way to approach the material. Suggestions for improvement included providing more secondary texts for critical or historical perspective. Prospective students should know class attendance and participation are essential for doing well in this course.