Penn Arts & Sciences Logo
 

Global Feminisms

ENGL 294.401
instructor(s):
TR 10:30-12:00 pm

In 1984 Robyn Morgan’s acclaimed book proclaimed: Sisterhood is Global! But is it? Feminism has both united women and also generated debates between women of different races, locations and sexual orientations, not just across the world but also within the US. How should we, located in a prestigious US university, locate our own ideas about gender and sexuality in a global framework?

This course provides you with an opportunity to read and think about these alliances and differences. We will consider key writings about the family, sexuality, the body and agency. Topics covered will be varied; and include female circumcision, the veil, violence against women, global trafficking, the environmental crisis, and new forms of female labor. 

Readings will include the work of well known scholars such as Angela Y. Davis, Judith Butler, Hazel Carby, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Adrienne Rich and Vandana Shiva, but also lesser known ones. We will watch some films including  Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar’s Warrior Marks, Indian-Canadian Deepa Mehta’s Fire, and celebrated African film-maker Ousmane Sembene’s Moolade.

Assignments include leading a class seminar on a topic of your choice, short responses every other week, and a final.

Satisfies the Cross Cultural Requirement of the College's General Education Curriculum; Fulfills Sectors 1 and 2 of the English major.

fulfills requirements
Elective Seminar of the Standard Major
Sector 1: Theory and Poetics of the Standard Major
Sector 2: Difference and Diaspora of the Standard Major
Sector 6: 20th Century Literature of the Standard Major
Cross Cultural Requirement of the College's General Education Curriculum