International Women's Voices

A drawning of three women holding books open.

New Words bookstore celebration. (Image by Linda Bourke.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21G.022J / WGS.141J

As Taught In

Spring 2004

Level

Undergraduate

Translated Versions

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Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

International Women’s Voices has several objectives. It introduces students to a variety of works by contemporary women writers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The emphasis is on non-western writers. The readings are chosen to encourage students to think about how each author’s work reflects a distinct cultural heritage and to what extent, if any, we can identify a female voice that transcends national cultures. In lectures and readings distributed in class, students learn about the history and culture of each of the countries these authors represent. The way in which colonialism, religion, nation formation and language influence each writer is a major concern of this course. In addition, students examine the patterns of socialization of women in patriarchal cultures, and how, in the imaginary world, authors resolve or understand the relationship of the characters to love, work, identity, sex roles, marriage, and politics.

Related Content

Margery Resnick. 21G.022J International Women's Voices. Spring 2004. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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