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

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
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. Pre-1800.
Prerequisites & Notes: Students should have completed a Writing Intensive course or gained Writing Certification in any course in the humanitites. Requirements can be waived with instructor consent.
This course is cross-listed with GSFS 253