1. Outcome:Demonstrate how literary paradigms such as the heroic journey apply to women in their various cultural and social capacities--as mothers, as wives, and as women alone.
   Assessment:The student will write an expository essay of approximately 1,000 words examining three or more works of short literature or one work of longer literature (such as a novel). Student will design his or her own original thesis and support that thesis by using primary sources (the literature itself), showing an ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate for ideas as well as demonstrating mastery in extracting quotes, paraphrasing, and citing sources. Instructor assessment on a scale of A - C (passing) or D - F (not passing). Essay will be graded on originality, form and content,including reasoning ability, creativity, and grammatical and mechanical correctness.

1. The Vocabulary of Literature
   1. Plot
   2. Character
   3. Point of view
   4. Setting
   5. Narrator
   6. Symbolism
   7. Tone
   8. Irony
2.  The Following Topics Will Be Examined Through the Lens of Culture and History (they will be taught in conjunction with the literature, not in isolation).
   
   1. The Different Waves of Feminism
      
   2. Women and Advertising
   3. Women and the Workplace
   4. Women and Relationships
   5. Gender Communication
3. Traditional Images of Women in Literature (short fiction, drama, poetry, and the novel)
   
   1. Literature of initiation--The heroic journey
      
   2. Literature of the Wife
   3. Literature of the Mother
   4. Literature of Woman Objectified
   5. Women and Love
   6. Literature of Women Enslaved
   7. Literature of Women and Nature
4. Women Becoming (short fiction, drama, poetry, and the novel)
   1. Protest Literature
   2. Literature of women without men
   3. Literature of the Sacred Feminine
5. Critical Approaches to Literature
   1. Formal
   2. Biographical
   3. Feminist
   4. Psychological
   5. Contemporary

Students will read college level readings, with an emphasis on imaginative literature--poetry, short stories, drama, and the novel--where women are central. Most, though not necessarily all, of the works will be written by women.

1. Read and analyze a variety of poems written by women or poems where women are central by such authors as Emily Dickinson, Anne Bradstreet, Mary Oliver, May Sarton, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Keats, William Blake, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sandra Cisneros, Stevie Smith, William Carlos Williams, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Kay Ryan.

2. Read and analyze a variety of short stories written by women or stories where women are central by such authors as Alice Walker, ZZ Packer, Edna O'Brien, Jean Stafford and Hisaye Yamamoto.

3. Read and analyze both a classic novel written by a woman (The Awakening by Kate Chopin, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte are examples of these) and a more contemporary novel written by a woman (Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver are examples of these).

1.Write a comparison essay analyzing the narrative voice, setting, and theme in May Sarton's "Mourning to Do" and William Carlos Williams' "The Widow's Lament in Springtime."

2.Write summary-response papers, examining the past and emerging images of women as wives and mothers after reading literature wirtten by such authors as Hisaye Yamamoto, Bharati Mukherjee, Alice Walker, Doris Lessing, Sandra Cisneros and Nadine Gordimer.

3. Write an essay characterizing Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, including examinging her role as a wife, mother, friend, and hero.

5. Write a critical essay about women enslaved and the impact that historical condition has on modern women after reading works from slave narratives by such authors as Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth.

6. Write essays analyzing and evaluating the various images of women in literature using the tools of feminist criticism, biographical criticism, formal criticism, and/or psychological criticism.

1. Participate in panel discussions to critically examine longer works of literature such as the novel.

2. Watch and analyze films on women in modern culture (such as women and advertising).

3. Give oral reports on their research paper findings.