GLS 569: Sex and Social Change in the Early Twentieth-Century U.S.
Instructor: Keith Newlin
"When the world began to change, the restlessness of women was the main cause," wrote Hutchins Hapgood in his memoir of his years in Greenwich Village, A Victorian in the Modern World. This "restlessness," attributed to the advent of what was popularly called "the New Woman," fascinated both female and male writers, for different reasons. Women writers saw in the New Woman the opportunity to re-imagine society and women's roles and to raise such questions as How are women's identities created and defined? What is woman's place in the new society? How should women view success? Is it possible to nurture the self, raise a family, participate equally in the community? Male writers, on the other hand, did not always react as unfavorably as one might assume. There was the expected ridicule of what some perceived to as the spectacle of "masculinized females," but others were more supportive in their portrayal of women as social equals. This course will explore the construction of the "New Woman" in fiction and drama written by both men and women.
Topics include the influence of the suffrage movement, the introspection occasioned by new conceptions of sexuality, the aesthetics of protest literature, the effects of increased social freedom for women, the impact of women entering the workforce, the debate over property rights, and especially new conceptions of "male" and "female."
Texts: (This text requirement is not current. Check with the instructor before purchasing any books.)
Bettina Friedl
(ed.), On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Women Suffrage
Movement
Maureen Honey (ed.), Breaking the Ties that Bind:
Popular Stories of the New Woman
Keith Newlin (ed.), American Plays of the New Woman
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Doctor Zay (1882)
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899)
Mary Austin, A Woman of Genius (1912)
Edith Wharton, Summer (1918)
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925)
Course pack of contemporary essays in popular magazines
Last Update: July 2, 2007
