26014 - FEMINIST THEORY: BETWEEN DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY - TEORIE DEGLI STUDI DI GENERE E CRITICHE FEMMINISTE: TRA DIFFERENZE E DIVERSITA'

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Gli studenti e le studentesse acquisiscono conoscenze approfondite delle teorie e metodologie degli studi di genere in diversi contesti culturali. Il corso intende favorire l'analisi delle rappresentazioni e costruzioni di genere e del rapporto identità/alterita' in diverse forme testuali (teorie critiche, narrativa, testi visuali) in una prospettiva interculturale.

Contenuti

Transgressing Borders: Visionary Bodies and Material Subjects

 Part 1. Visionary bodies and material subjects: genealogies, theories and methodologies of Women's, gender, and postcolonial studies.

The course will analyse critical theories and methodologies of gender in dialogue with diverse feminism(s), African American and postcolonial studies. It will explore the notion of identity/difference, and diversity; gender performativity; women's and postcolonial re-visions of the symbolic and social order; the construction of sexual difference, representations of the body; politics of location and situated knowledge in an intercultural perspective. The lectures will engage in the critical debates on the representation and deconstruction of the notion of gender and ‘difference' in diverse cultural contexts. The course thus intends to enable the analysis of the construction of gender, ‘difference and diversity' in theoretical, literary, visual texts; to gain critical tools to reflect upon diverse cultural debates, to elaborate on the interconnections between texts and contexts, the individual and the community. Lessons will include Luce Irigaray: the ethics of sexual difference as re-vision of the symbolic and social order; Rosi Braidotti: nomadic subjects and the politics of affirmation; Hortense Spiller: the African American's answer to mainstream feminism; Gayatri C. Spivak: can the subaltern speak?, Donna Haraway: the feminist Cyborg, Judith Butler: Queer theory against normativity, A. Rich's essays on the politics of location.

Part 2. Re-writings of the body and the ethics of memory in utopian/dystopian fiction

The second part of the course will present case studies in which texts (literary and visual) are in dialogue with the theories and methodologies of gender studies previously discussed. In particular the case studies elaborate on the issue of gender, identity, difference, ‘race', and politics of the body in the representations, transmissions and elaborations of traumatic events in literary (with specific reference to utopian and dystopian fiction) and visual texts. Case studies will include: the reading of the texts Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin, Kindred by Octavia Butler as ‘concrete' dystopia, Under the Skin by Michael Faber, Angela Carter's postmodern utopias and dystopias and politics of the body; movies and TV series.

Testi/Bibliografia

IN PROGRESS

Bibliography includes essays, articles, volumes.

Lesson will make reference to the following critical sources:

(Students will be requested to choose texts/essays/articles from the following list and the ones proposed during the course, in accordance with the lecturer):

Baccolini, Raffaella “Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler.” Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism. Ed. Marleen S. Barr. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 13-34.

Braidotti, Rosi “Difference, Diversity, and Nomadic Subjectivity” documento Internet, http://women.ped.kun.nl [http://women.ped.kun.nl/] , 2000.

Butler , Judith, 1993, Bodies that Matter. On the Discoursive Limits of “Sex”.New York and London: Routledge, 1996, Corpi che Contano. I limiti discorsivi del “sesso” Trad. S. Capelli. Milano: Feltrinelli. (selected chapters and Introduction) reperibile in biblioteca. Introduzione di A. Cavarero.

Moi, Toril, Sexual/Textual Politics. Femnist Literary Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 1985 (available in the library)

Fortunati, Vita, Gilberta Golinelli, Rita Monticelli (a cura di) Studi di genere e memoria culturale. Women and Cultural Memory. Bologna: Clueb, 2004.(selected chapters) reperibile in biblioteca

Haraway, Donna J., 1991, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge., 1995, Manifesto Cyborg. Donne, tecnologie e biopolitiche del corpo.Trad. e cura L. Borghi. Milano: Feltrinelli Interzone. (selected chapters)

Irigaray, Luce, “Donne Divine" in Sessi e Genealogie, 1989. Trad. L. Muraro. Milano: La Tartaruga. Sexes et parentés Paris: Minuit, 1987, Divine Women, Occasional Paper, Sydney, 1986, trans. S. Muecke reperibile nel reader. “Donne divine”, in AA. VV, Melusina. Mito e leggenda di una donna serpente. Roma, Utopia, 1986, pp. 134-150 (available in the Reader)

Irigaray, Luce, 1980, "When our Lips Speak Together" (L. Irigaray; C. Burke) in Signs, vol 6, n. 1, 1980, 69-79, Chicago UP. online http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/2006/spring/imperialbedroom/luceirigaryLIPS.pdf    https://www.didaweb.net/risorse/visita.php?url=http://www.women.it/les/testi/labbra.htm (available in French, Italian, Spanish ect.) 

Irigaray, Luce, 1985, Etica della differenza sessuale. trad. L. Muraro e A. Leoni. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1984, Ethique de la difference sexuelle. Paris: Minuit. (selected chapters)

Monticelli R., The Politics of the Body in Women's Literatures, Bologna, I Libri di Emil - Odoya, 2012, pp. 176.

Monticelli, Rita, 1997, sezione "Soggetti corporei", in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie, Bologna: Clueb, pp. 205-255 (selected essays) reperibile in biblioteca

Monticelli, R., "Oltre lo specchio: politiche e poetiche degli studi di genere e delle donne", «MODERNA», 2013, 1-2 . 2012, pp. 219 – 233 (avilable in the Reader)

Monticelli R., 'Seeking light in darkness and harmony in confusion': Death, Memory and Resistance in Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin and Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, «DEDALUS», 2008, 11-12; 2006-2008, pp. 53 – 66 (available in the Reader)

Lorde, Audre, 1984, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”, in Sister Outsider. Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 53-59. “Usi dell'erotismo: l'erotismo come potere” in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie, pp. 247-254.

Rich, Adrienne, 1986, “Notes towards a Politics of Location” in Blood, Bread and Poetry. London: Virago

Sontag, Susan, “Regarding the Torture of Others”, published NY May 23, 2004. reperibile online

Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book”, in Diacritics. A Review of Contemporary Criticism 17 (2), 1987, pp. 65-81. “Figli/e di madre, del padre forse: una grammatica Americana” in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie . A cura di Raffaella Baccolini; M. Giulia Fabi, Vita Fortunati, Rita Monticelli. Bologna: CLUEB, 1997, pp. 255-279, trad. Lucia Gunella e Rita Monticelli. reperibile in biblioteca e nel reader

Spivak, Gayatri C, 1985, “Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow-Sacrifice.” Wedge (Winter-Spring 1985), 7-8:120-130. Issue entitled "The Imperialism of Representation/The Representation of Imperialism.

Spivak, Gayatri C, 1985, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism", Critical Inquiry, 12-1. Issue entitled: "Race", Writing and Difference.

Zapf, Hubert (Ed.) 2016, Handbook of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology (Handbooks of English and American Studies). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter

Mediazioni online, Special issue on The Village (available online), mediazioni online n. 2, 2006. www.mediazioni.sitlec.unibo.it/index.php/no2-anno2006.html

Primary Texts:

Burdekin, Katharine, Swastika Night, 1937 (also available online)

Butler, Octavia E., Kindred, Boston: Beacon Press, 1988, f. p. 1979.

Faber, Michael, Under The Skin, 2000

Carter, Angela, The Passion of New Eve, 1977

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid's Tale, 1985

Movie: The Village, Director M. Night Shyamalan, U.S.A, 2004

Movie: Under The Skin, Director Jonathan Glazer, U.K, 2013

Visual texts and Tv series (e.g. Wayward Pines, True Blood, Black Mirror, Stranger Things, The Handmaid's Tale, Westworld) (to be decided together with the students). 

The final syllabus and final reading list will be available at the beginning of the course (Part 1 and 2).

Please do check this web page for further notice and information

Metodi didattici

Lessons, seminars, discussion in class, students' presentations. Languages: English AND Italian

Bibliography and other information will be provided also during the lessons (and then published in the online reading list and program). The course includes both lessons and seminars with the active participation of the students. Students who cannot attend lessons must contact the lecturer during her office hours, or via e-mail before the end of the course. Students are requested to check the online program also during the course for further notice and information.

B.A students are not admitted. Erasmus students are requested to contact the lecturer before enrolling in the course.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Gli studenti e le studentesse di Letteratura Inglese/Letteratura dei Paesi di lingua inglese 2 LM dovranno analizzare 3 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 200/220 pagine. E' inoltre richiesta l'analisi di uno dei film in programma e una tra le serie TV proposte.

Students of the course Letteratura Inglese/Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese 2 LMare requested to analyse 3 texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 200/220 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of one of the movies proposed and one TV series.

Le studentesse e gli studenti di Feminist Theory between Difference and Diversity dovranno analizzare 3 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 250 pagine. E' inoltre richiesto lo studio dei film proposti e di una serie TV.

Students of Feminist Theory between Difference and Diversity are requested to analyse 3 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 250 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of the movies proposed and one TV series.

Le studentesse e gli studenti di Gender Studies/Studi di genere dovranno analizzare 2 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 150 pagine. E' inoltre richiesto lo studio di uno dei film proposti e di una serie TV.

Students of Gender Studies/Studi di genere are requested to analyse 2 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 150 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of one of the movies and one of the TV series proposed.

All students (divided in groups) are requested to present in class one text (to be chosen in accordance with the lecturer) within diverse critical perspectives, in a date to be confirmed.

Please do check this web page for further notice and information

Assessment methods:

Active participation in class discussions: 25%. By participation in class we mean the ability of the student to enter the debates, contributing with questions and/or elaborations of the topics proposed by the lecturer. This participation does not aim at testing students' specific preparation in the field, rather, they want to favor their ability to take part in discussions and their capability to discuss in group.

Students' Presentation: Students are requested to present a text 

Students' Presentation: 25%. Students are requested to do a group presentation of one text to be chosen from the reading list in accordance with the lecturer.

Final oral exam: 50%

The final oral exam will test the student's critical capability, his/her knowledge of the methodologies employed, her/his ability to combine theories with the analyses of the case studies chosen. The close reading of the texts aims at showing the student's critical ability, their knowledge not only of the texts but also of their context of creation together with the cultural politics that inform them. Students are requested to use an appropriate language, to be able to articulate their thought in English and Italian (high level) and to have an accurate knowledge of the bibliography chosen for the exam.

Grades:

Excellent: Students' high capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, originality of thought and excellent knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, accurate and appropriate language.

Very good level: Students' capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, originality of thought and very good knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate, accurate language.

Good level: Students' capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate language.

Pass: Students' capability to enter the exiting debates on the topics chosen, knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate language.

Fail: Student's lack of knowledge of the theories employed during the course, incapability to critical reading of the novels, inappropriate and inaccurate language.

Please do check this web page for further notice and information

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Power point, slides, movies, visual texts.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Rita Monticelli

Consulta il sito web di Francesco Cattani