Women's Utopias

Code:

MEAAM022

Acronym:

UM

Instance: 2012/2013 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Masters in Anglo-American Studies

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
EAAM	0	Course Programme	1	-	6	-
MEAA	1	Study Plan since 2007/2008	1	-	6	-

Teaching language

English

Objectives

The program will try to develop in the students an awareness of how the process of women's liberation and affirmation within a patriarchal society can be illustrated in texts of an utopian nature, from different periods and genres.

Program

Conceptual tools will be defined departing from the analyisis of fundamental theoretical texts in the areas of Utopian Studies and Post-Modern Geography -- particularly those connected with feminist criticism.
Issues like the struggle against an essentialist perspective of women, the women´s fight for the conquest of new spaces, or the way through which feminist utopian discourse takes a transgressive character, will be illustrated with texts produced between the 16th and the 19th century. This study will be extended to the 17th and 18th century in Portugal, in spaces where it is possible to speak about the existence of an utopian or dystopian discourse, like the discourse that emerged in Portuguese convents.
Texts to be studied:
Poems by Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti; The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, by Margaret Cavendish, duchess de Newcastle; poems by Maria de S. José, Violante do Céu and Maria do Céu.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Participative discussion of the students of all te texts to be studied.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	30,00
	Trabalho escrito	107,00
	Trabalho escrito	25,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

Evaluation components:

a) active participation in class;
b) oral presentation;
c) oral discussion of the work developed along the semester.

Examinations or Special Assignments

N/A

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

N/A

Classification improvement

N/A

Observations

N/A