Catalog short description: \u201cLiterature and Women\u201d\nintroduces students to the study of literature by and about women, with special\nattention to questions of gender in their social and historical contexts. Also\nlisted as WGST 56. (4 units) Fulfills a diversity\nrequirement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLiterature and Women: Women\u2019s Prison Writing\u201d (ENG\n68\/WGST 56) is designed to raise awareness of and create inquiry and dialogue\nabout incarcerated women writers and storytellers and their stories. Why\nwomen\u2019s prison writing, you ask? To quote Michelle Alexander, \u201cOur nation is\nawash in punitiveness, for reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime\nor crime rates. [. . .] During the past thirty years, our nation\u2019s prison\npopulation has quintupled, while crime rates have fluctuated and today are at\nhistorical lows. [. . .] The staggering rates of imprisonment of black and\nLatino men in recent years have led many, including myself, to focus their\nadvocacy work and research on addressing the plight of men profiled and\nbrutalized by the police, and put in prison. Women inside the criminal justice\nsystem, meanwhile, are often mentioned as an afterthought, if at all. The\nomission is inexcusable. Today, women are the fastest growing segment of the\nprison population, and the most vulnerable. The overwhelming majority\u2014over 90\npercent\u2014of women in prison have suffered sexual and\/or domestic abuse, and have\nlived in extreme poverty. [. . .] The result is that our women\u2019s prisons are\nfilled with people from the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalized segments\nof our society, whose offenses are often a consequence of their circumstances:\nlack of access to employment, familial stability, drug treatment, and\nprotection from sexual and physical abuse. And once in prison, abuse often\ncontinues for these women, who face sexual, physical, and mental abuse at the\nhands of prison staff.\u201d (Inside This Place, Not Of\nIt <\/em>12-13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated\nwomen are brave enough to tell their stories and have also inspired others to\nhelp spread their words and knowledge of their worlds. In our course, we will\nread them, listen to them, and watch their performances. We will be an audience to the voices of those who are too often\nconsidered invisible, though they are all around us, and too often perceived as\nsilent, though they speak out.<\/em> Through our readings,\ndiscussions, and assignments, we will think critically about the complicated\ninstitutions and social forces that govern incarceration, especially for women\nin our country. We will evolve collaboratively toward using our own voices\nto create dialogue on this difficult topic, and change, that spreads beyond the\nlimits of our classroom and our short Fall term together.<\/em> I look forward to\nworking with all of you and getting to know you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will be studying texts on a\nweekly basis, in every class throughout the term, that might contain triggers\nfor certain audiences. What is a trigger? A trigger is a graphic\nrepresentation of a subject matter that could spur a mental health crisis for a\nreader or viewer. Reactions to personal experiences are nothing to be ashamed\nof, and our class learning community will be kind to one another as we grapple\nwith this material together. Common triggers include representations of rape,\nviolence, abuse, addiction, suicide, discrimination, or victim-blaming of any\nkind. The topics we will read about on a weekly basis also include\nphysical and psychological suffering and unjust imprisonment. This course is\ndifferent from most others in that nearly all of the texts we\u2019ll study contain\nmany of these troubling topics. We will approach them from a critical but also\na deeply human and caring point-of-view. If you think it might cause you harm\nto read and\/or talk about any or all of these topics on a regular basis, please\ncontact me right away to discuss alternatives. Visit kirstynleuner.youcanbook.me<\/a> to make your appointment or email me kleuner@scu.edu<\/a>. I also include a link to Bronco Health and\nWellness Guide<\/a>, as it links to many wellness\nresources on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All other texts will be provided electronically. Look on\nthe Schedule page where the reading is due, and it will tell you where to find\nthe electronic copy. It will either be linked right there on the schedule or it\nwill say \u201cCamino Files\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your grades for each assignment will be delivered in\nCamino. Detailed assignment instructions will be delivered in class and posted\nonline when the assignment is introduced. Check the course calendar for due\ndates.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLearning objectives:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Course content warning & trigger\nwarnings:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Required Texts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? <\/em>Seven\n Stories Press, 2003.\n <\/td><\/tr> \n Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed<\/em>.\n 30th Anniversary Edition, Continuum, 2000.\n <\/td><\/tr> \n Kerman, Piper. Orange is the New Black: My Year\n in a Women\u2019s Prison<\/em>. Spiegel & Grau, 2011.\n <\/td><\/tr> \n Hylton, Donna. A Little Piece of Light: A Memoir of\n Hope, Prison, and A Life Unbound.<\/em> Hatchett, 2018.\n <\/td><\/tr> \n Jacobi, Tobi, and Kathleen Adams, eds. Women, Writing,\n and Prison: Activists, Scholars, and Writers Speak Out<\/em>. Rowman &\n Littlefield, 2014.\n <\/td><\/tr> \n Levi, Robin, and Ayelet Waldman, eds. Inside this Place, Not of it: Narratives from Women\u2019s\n Prisons. <\/em>Verso, 2017.\n <\/td><\/tr> Kushner, Rachel. The Mars Room: A Novel. <\/em>Scribner, 2018. (Update: this is now OPTIONAL)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n COURSEWORK and GRADES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Grade Values<\/h3>\n\n\n\n