This course centers on the production of radical women thinkers in the 1930s who engaged in local and international political struggles through writing—essays, short stories, and poetry—and art. This course challenges the idea that 1930s radicalism was a masculinist preserve and that women’s political agency disappeared from history between the suffrage movement and civil rights. Among the women whose work we will engage are Agnes Smedley, Tillie Olsen, Dorothy Day, Marita Bonner, and artist Frida Kahlo. In order to understand the tradition of literary radicalism, we will situate texts within their political context and engage in an analysis that explores the complex relationships of race, class, sex, work, and gender.
Special thanks: This course inspired by a course originally developed in the department by Prof. Alycee Lane.
Lineage
by Margaret Walker
My grandmothers were strong.
They followed plows and bent to toil.
They moved through fields sowing seed.
They touched the earth and grain grew.
They were full of sturdiness and singing.
My grandmothers were strong.
My grandmothers are full of memories
Smelling of soap and onions and wet clay
With veins rolling roughly over quick hands
They have many clean words to say.
My grandmothers were strong.
Why am I not as they?
Fulfulls: GE area "G" and Writing Requirement.
illustration: Brigid's Day by Breid Foxsong
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Instructor
 Jeanne Scheper
Office and Office Hours
Location/Time
Girvetz Hall room 2120
TR, 2:00 PM3:15 PM
Required Texts
Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940, edited by Charlotte Nekola and Paula Rabinowitz. (Available as a reprint at the campus bookstore.)
Course Reader available at The Alternative, 6556 Pardall Road, Isla Vista. ph: 805.968.1055
FILMS TBA: There will be a number of required film and video screenings including For My People: The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker, Cradle Will Rock, and the Blackside series The Great Depression.
Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley
Assignments (more)
20% Mid-term assignment
(3-5 Pages)
20% Final Research Paper
(8-10 pages
Typed, double space, standard font & margins, length excludes footnotes and works cited. Use MLA style. )
15% Final Creative Project
(Project plus 1-2 page explication)
20% Weekly Writing Assignments/Dialogic Responses to Readings and Films
(1-2 pages typed)
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