Venus and Mars

[This schedule may change; please check back.]

Jan. 6: Introduction to the course

Jan. 13: Class cancelled

Jan. 20: Beginnings
Reading: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (1915)
Topics for discussion: genre; sexuality
Presentation: Ashley R. on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s life and works

Jan. 27: Mid-20thc
Reading: Phillip Wylie, The Disappearance (1951)
Topics for discussion: gender roles; 1950s North American culture
Presentation: Amber D. on Wylie and the 1950s

Feb. 3: Second Wave I
Reading: Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” (1973) (available online); Joanna Russ, The Female Man (1975)
Topics for discussion: “2nd wave” of feminism; SF and modernism; women and SF

Feb. 10: Second Wave II
Reading: James Tiptree, Jr., Houston, Houston, Do You Read? (1976) (available online in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, through Google Books)
Topics for discussion: amazons; vagina dentata; women and SF

Feb. 17: Men without women I
Reading: Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (1977)
Topics for discussion: masculinity; violence; gender roles
Presentation: Jeremy C. on Joe Haldeman’s life and works

Feb. 24: Second Wave III
Reading: Suzy McKee Charnas, The Slave and the Free: Books 1 and 2 of The Holdfast Chronicles: Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines (1974, 1978; Tor, 1999)
Topics for discussion: separatism
Presentation: Shannon E. on Charnas

Mar. 2-6: Winter break

Mar. 10: Second Wave IV
Reading: Suzette Haden Elgin, Native Tongue (1984)
Topics for discussion: language and gender

Mar. 17: Second Wave V
Reading: Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
Topics for discussion: reproduction; politics
Presentation: Annie C. on Atwood
Video: clips from the film

Mar. 24: Men without women II
Reading: Lois McMaster Bujold, Ethan of Athos (1986)
Topics for discussion: gender-segregated societies
Presentation: Kim G. on Lois McMaster Bujold’s life and works

Mar. 31: Second Wave VI
Reading: Sheri Tepper, The Gate to Women’s Country (1988).
Topics for discussion: genetic arguments about gender characteristics
Presentations: Alana L. on Sheri Tepper/Gate; Terry S. on Tepper/Gate

Apr. 7: Third wave
Reading: Nicola Griffith, Ammonite (1993).
Topics for discussion: contemporary trends
Presentation: Brent W. on Nicola Griffith’s life and works