ENGL 253 - Pens and Needles: Gender and Media in Early America

Semester Offered: Second Semester
Full Course
Credits: 4 credits
Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

This course will explore the complex relationship between gender, race, and media in the Americas before 1865. Our syllabus takes as its starting point expansive understandings of the term “media.” We will read the written word alongside lives and experiences recorded through media such as quilts, samplers, Native American quill work, songs, and recipes. Examining the different authorial roles available to early Americans, we will consider how gender, race, and ethnicity structure one’s relationship to alphabetic letters, and explore the diverse ways in which people used various media to carve out identities for themselves and to enter public discourse. American, Diversity, 1700-1900.

Enrollment Limit: 25
Instructor: D. Skeehan

Prerequisites & Notes: For complete prerequisites, please refer to the English Program section titled “200-Level Courses.”
This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies; Comparative American Studies; The Book Studies Concentration