COURSE OBJECTIVES

The purposes of this course are:

• To read and appreciate literary works from several world cultures;
• To analyze and compare literary works by women authors using a common framework of experience as a basis;
• To explore the idea of women’s coming of age and female authors’ transformation and interpretation of that experience.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course explores works of world literature on the theme of female coming of age. Through fiction and autobiography by major female authors, we will examine the diverse rites of passage marking the progress to womanhood in 20th century world cultures. Some aspects highlighted by these selections include the influence of ethnic background on the coming of age experience in the United States; the emerging modern definitions for women from several traditional cultures; and the variety of survival and growth strategies women have devised. Other questions and issues to consider in your reading are how the coming of age experience is shaped by such factors as education, marriage, child-bearing, beauty, economic status and dependency, the traumatic impact of war or rape, and the encounter with the "other."

BOOKS REQUIRED

All of the following required books can be ordered from the eFollett/CSUDH University Bookstore:

Duong, Thu Huong	Paradise of the Blind
Duras, Marguerite	The Lover
Gordimer, Nadine	Burger's Daughter
Morrison, Toni	The Bluest Eye
Lorde, Audre Zami	A New Spelling of My Name
Woolf, Virginia	The Voyage Out
Gibaldi, Joseph and Achtert, Walter	MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association, 1988. ISBN: 0-87352-379-2. Note: This book is required for all HUX Courses.
In addition, students must choose at least one of the autobiographical works from among the following. These are available in libraries or in inexpensive paperbacks:
Allende, Isabel	Paula
Angelou, Maya	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Beauvoir, Simone de	Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Frame, Janet	An Angel At My Table
Frank, Anne	Diary of Anne Frank (please use new restored version)
Hurston, Zora Neale	Dust Tracks on a Road
Hayslip, Le Ly	When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Kincaid, Jamaica	The Autobiography of My Mother
Kingston, Maxine Hong	The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
McCarthy, Mary	Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
Mead, Margaret	Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years
Welty, Eudora	One Writer's Beginnings

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