AM ST W118: The American Woman: Visions and Revisions
Dr. Regina Bannan
bannan@temple.edu

Cross-listed with Honors (AmSt HW192) and Women's Studies (WmSt W206)

The on-line version of this course allows students develop their writing skills through a lively dialogue via e-mail about complex readings about women. The text is Mary Anne Ferguson's anthology, Images of Women in Literature (fifth edition, 1991), which uses short stories and poetry mainly by women, many from minority groups and most writing in the United States in the late twentieth century. Two short novels and one non-fiction analysis of contemporary society are the other readings. This course is not heavily theory-based; it is intended to familiarize students with women's studies concepts through sensitive readings of literature and mass culture.

Students identify stereotyped elements of various images of women in American culture and contrast them with the presentations of women in the literature they are reading. They reflect on the readings in journals, which they exchange electronically and then comment on to further develop their ideas through dialogue with their peers and the instructor. Short papers allow students to do some formal writing, integrating what they have learned and using it to analyze other situations.