Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon successful completion students will be able to:
Appreciate the role of gender in shaping texts as a product of particular cultures and historical moments, especially unfamiliar ones.
Consider women’s writing as a significant influence in the construction of individual and cultural experiences within specific historical contexts
Observe elements of form, grammar, dialect, and various language devices as a means by which texts create meaning
Challenge cultural norms and limits of analysis/criticism to create a richer experience of the texts, including multiple interpretations of the text as a
complex fabric.

Appreciation

• Articulate ways in which the text focuses on attitudes about and experiences of gender.
• Engage, through the text, unfamiliar and diverse cultures, experiences and points of view.
• Appreciate an apparently simple text as a complex fabric or document.

Context

• Recognize the role of gender in shaping the text as a product of a particular culture and historical moment.
• Understand the text within the context of a literary tradition or convention.
• Acknowledge the possibility of multiple interpretations of a text.
• Recognize the text’s relationship to different art forms.

Form/Structure

• Recognize the variety of stylistic choices that authors make to work within given forms or to challenge their conventions.    This may include decisions about theme, image, character, plot, setting, voice, point of view, and figurative language.
• Use knowledge of form as a tool to analyze the text, as well as to demonstrate how form  influences meaning.

Analysis

• Evaluate various interpretations of a text--with special emphasis on feminist theory--through reading, writing, and  speaking, and  through individual and group responses.
• Through close reading of the text, discover and analyze the support for a particular interpretation.
• Write clear, focused, coherent essays about literature for an academic audience, using standard English conventions of   grammar and style

Assessment tools may include informal responses to study questions; evaluation of small-and full-group discussion; in-class and out-of-class writing; formal essays, as well as informal responses to study questions and other types of informal writing; presentations by individuals and groups; short and long essay exams; close reading exercises using evidence; writing exercises which include evaluation of various interpretations of a text and their relative validity.  Both instructor and peer evaluation may be incorporated in the assessment process.

Competencies and Skills

• Blending autobiographical and academic discourse
• Analysis and synthesis
• Understanding literature through such contexts as gender roles and their expectations; society; politics; artistic conventions; and multiple interpretations of an author.
• Writing about literature
• Close readings
• Critical reading, employing reviews and critical essays
• Speaking and listening reflectively
• Small group collaboration
• Information literacy