WFU VIRTUAL STUDY ABROAD FAIR
ENG 302/CRW 286/ WGS 377
This co-taught 3-credit course will introduce you to wide-ranging works of English literature-mostly by women writers--that portray the lives of rebellious women, and particularly those who seek uncommon or magical means for personal empowerment, and in so doing, confront cultures that persecute or alienate those who defy patriarchal ideals of passive femininity. In reading works that span the centuries between the medieval and the contemporary, we’ll be discussing how and why the witch came to be a central feminist archetype. At the same time, the course will be a writing-intensive experience that bridges critical-creative divides, in asking you to write reading responses and to compose and workshop your own short story on the figure of the witch. This framework draws upon Dr. Joanna Ruocco’s training in fiction and her accomplishments as a novelist and experimental writer, and Dr. Sarah Hogan’s expertise as a scholar of British Renaissance literature.
You will be challenged to track a powerful, mutable female archetype across centuries and genres, and to consider the literary and social construction of identity through focus on the witch as a marginal and maligned figure and also as a figure of resistance. You will do this outside of your home contexts; this defamiliarization will help you build knowledge in exciting new ways. Traveling to the UK will enrich your understanding of textual materials. We'll attend theatrical productions, and see the sites you read about firsthand and observe how countries, and counties, narrate / memorialize the history of witch trials and executions. Moreover, you will write fiction in response to your experiences, participating in the tradition of writers who walk to write (e.g. Charles Lamb, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf) and develop your skills as a creative observer.
This course will count toward the English major, the WGS major, the Creative Writing minor, or as Division II credit.
This co-taught 3-credit course will introduce you to wide-ranging works of English literature-mostly by women writers--that portray the lives of rebellious women, and particularly those who seek uncommon or magical means for personal empowerment, and in so doing, confront cultures that persecute or alienate those who defy patriarchal ideals of passive femininity. In reading works that span the centuries between the medieval and the contemporary, we’ll be discussing how and why the witch came to be a central feminist archetype. At the same time, the course will be a writing-intensive experience that bridges critical-creative divides, in asking you to write reading responses and to compose and workshop your own short story on the figure of the witch. This framework draws upon Dr. Joanna Ruocco’s training in fiction and her accomplishments as a novelist and experimental writer, and Dr. Sarah Hogan’s expertise as a scholar of British Renaissance literature.
You will be challenged to track a powerful, mutable female archetype across centuries and genres, and to consider the literary and social construction of identity through focus on the witch as a marginal and maligned figure and also as a figure of resistance. You will do this outside of your home contexts; this defamiliarization will help you build knowledge in exciting new ways. Traveling to the UK will enrich your understanding of textual materials. We'll attend theatrical productions, and see the sites you read about firsthand and observe how countries, and counties, narrate / memorialize the history of witch trials and executions. Moreover, you will write fiction in response to your experiences, participating in the tradition of writers who walk to write (e.g. Charles Lamb, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf) and develop your skills as a creative observer.
This course will count toward the English major, the WGS major, the Creative Writing minor, or as Division II credit.
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