First-Year Seminars 110UW - Awakenings

An exploration of writing, primarily fiction, by U.S. women from around 1900 to now, focusing on the theme of awakenings. We will examine how women writers represent political awakenings, transformations of physical embodiment and psychological consciousness, and discoveries of new literary forms. We will read a diverse group of writers and and foreground interpretive frameworks of race, gender, and sexuality. Authors may include Bechdel, Chang, Chopin, Cisneros, Davis, Dunbar-Nelson, Egan, Far, Gilman, Hurston, Larsen, McCullers, Morrison, Stein, Truong, Wharton, and Yamamoto.

Mount Holyoke first-year students only, by placement.