Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 102602

Coordinator Helen Basides Opens in new window

Description This unit considers the intersection of gender and genre in various narrative forms. Through a variety of texts that may include polemic, conduct literature, plays, novels, poetry and film, students will examine the construction of masculinity and femininity within various genres, and consider the ways in which genres themselves may be gendered. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the unit also considers the strategies that women writers, in particular, have used to participate in literary production by adopting and adapting particular generic conventions. A consideration of the ways in which gender and genre may be connected also allows students to consider questions of literary production and circulation, literary value and reputation.

School Humanities & Comm Arts

Discipline Literature

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 1 10cp

Level Postgraduate Coursework Level 7 subject

Restrictions

Students must be enrolled in a postgraduate program.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Examine the connection between gender and genre in various narrative modes.
2. Analyse the construction of masculinity and femininity in various genres.
3. Evaluate ideas about the ways in which genres might be gendered.
4. Identify and analyse the ways in which writers have responded to assumptions about the gendered nature of particular narrative forms, authorship and readership.
5. Identify and analyse the ways in which writers, particularly women writers, have adopted and adapted generic conventions in order to reflect their experiences.
6. Explain and analyse the relationship between gender, literary production, literary circulation and reputation.

Subject Content

Debates about the connections between genre and gender.
Representations of masculinity and femininity in various narrative forms.
Women?fs writing and the woman writer, from the seventeenth century onwards.
Considerations of gender as they relate to: theme, character, voice and form.
Women?fs place in literary production.
The ideal reader, especially in discourses about the rise of the novel.
Fictional and non-fictional forms.
Examination of different text types: polemic, conduct literature, plays, novels, poetry, short story, essay, and film.