Gender and the Body in Narrative Discourse
Code: 45366 ECTS Credits: 5| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| English Studies: Linguistic, Literary and Sociocultural Perspectives | OP | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Virginia Pignagnoli
- Email:
- virginia.pignagnoli@uab.cat
Teachers
- Joan Curbet Soler
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Interest in thinking critically, developing a scholarly voice, and learning about gender and the body in classical and contemporary narratives.
- To pass this module, students must have a C1 level of English or its equivalent. This is because they will need to produce practical work with advanced texts in the field of literature, which requires a deep understanding of the subject and the use of critical skills.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Learning how to critically analyze gender and bodies in narrative discourses across literary and media (the epic, drama, novel, short fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, movies) through new historicist, marxist, queer and feminist narrative theory.
Learning Outcomes
- CA14 (Competence) Make theoretical proposals on the cultural expression of the body and sexuality that are connected to the studied paradigms.
- CA15 (Competence) Write up research projects on intersectionality and gender in literature.
- KA14 (Knowledge) Identify the social and cultural models that make an impact on the expression of the body in narrative discourse.
- KA15 (Knowledge) Recognise literary and cultural expression based on an LGBTIQ+ perspective of the texts analysed.
- KA16 (Knowledge) Contrast the various cultural trends that tackle the distinct types of literary genre and their links to the authorial corpus.
- SA20 (Skill) Analyse the way in which literary genre is reconfigured based on the expression of corporality.
- SA21 (Skill) Examine the expression of gender bias in a literary and/or cultural production in the English language.
- SA22 (Skill) Apply literary criticism to the analysis of identity markers in relationships between society and the individual.
Content
The course is divided in two modules:
1. The first module (Sept. 29 – Oct. 29) will explore the way gender and the body were conceptualized and presented in late medieval, Renaissance and Restoration discourses (prof. Joan Curbet Soler).
2. The second module (Nov. 3 – Dec. 10) will explore the way gender and the body are presented in contemporary narrative discourse in different media and texts (prof. Virginia Pignagnoli).
Please know that some of the readings in this class can be difficult as they deal with the subjects of violences, forms of oppression, and other forms of embodied experiences.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 30 | 1.2 | KA14, KA15, KA16, SA20, SA21, SA22, KA14 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| class discussion and activities | 20 | 0.8 | KA15, SA20, SA22, KA15 |
| Essay writing | 20 | 0.8 | CA14, CA15, KA14, SA21, SA22, CA14 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| reading and studying | 30 | 1.2 | KA14, KA15, KA16, SA21, SA22, KA14 |
1 ECTS credit = 25 teaching/assessment hours > 5 credits = 125 hours.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class discussions and class activities | 15% | 5 | 0.2 | KA14, KA15, SA21, SA22 |
| Essay 1 | 40% | 10 | 0.4 | CA14, CA15, KA14, KA15, KA16, SA20, SA21, SA22 |
| Essay 2 | 45% | 10 | 0.4 | CA14, CA15, KA14, KA15, KA16, SA20, SA21, SA22 |
Evaluation activities
Class discussions and class activities (15%)
Short essay (3000-3500 words) (40%)
Final short essay (3,500 – 4,000 words) (45%)
Reassessment conditions
- Students whose final average mark of the two exams is between 3,5 and 4,8 are eligible for re-assessment.
- The specific re-assessment activity will be confirmed by the lecturer.
- The only pass mark awarded in re-assessment will be a 5.
- In case students cannot take the exam on the date set up by the teacher for justified medical reasons, a different date can be agreed on with the lecturer.
- Reassessment is available ONLY to students who have failed the initial assessment; it is NOT available to students who have passed but wish to improve their final grade.
Plagiarism
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place.
In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Irregularities refer, for instance, to copying in an exam, copying from sources without indicating authorship, or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as original that has been generated by an AI tool or programme. These evaluation activities will not be re-assessed.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Single Assessment
Single assessment will consist of the following activities:
A written exam which will include all the theoretical perspectives offered in the course (50 %).
An oral commentary on a chosen text, based on all of the critical perspectives offered in the course. (50 %)
Students are asked to use non-sexist language in their oral and written production. See the website of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA): https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/lsa-guidelines-nonsexist-usage.
Bibliography
For the first module, you will be expected to read:
-Shakespeare´s Sonnets (Oxford Classics edition)
-Shakespeare , A Midsummer Night´s Dream (Oxford Classics edition)
-Edmund Spenser, fragments from The Faerie Queene (fragments will be made available online)
-John Milton, fragments from Paradise Regain´d (fragments will be made available online)
For the second module, you will be required to read/watch:
• Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006). Available here: https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02-12_620809c8b5e4e_FunHomeAFamilyTragicomicbyAlisonBechdelz-lib.org_.pdf
• “Cat Person,” Kristen Roupenian (2017). Available here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person
• “Explicit Violence,” Lidia Yuknavitch (2022). Available here: https://therumpus.net/2022/06/28/explicit-violence/
• Barbie, dir. Greta Gerwig (2023)
A selection of critical readings will be available in PDF or as web links on Moodle at the beginning of the course. It will include:
-Queering the Renaissance, Jonathan Godberg ed., Duke Univ, Press, 1993.
-Shakespeare and Gender, Kate Aughterson and Ailsa Grant Ferguson eds., Arden 2020.
-Rethinking the Mind-Body Relationship in Early Modern Literature, Charis Charlampous ed., Routledge , 2015.
-The Queer Milton, David L. Orvis, Palgrave, 2018.
• “Toward (a Queerer and) More (Feminist) Narratology,” Susan S. Lanser, 2015. Available: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/oa_edited_volume/chapter/1518417/pdf
• Ways of Seeing (Chapter 3), John Berger, 1972
• “Till Death Do Us Part: Embodying Narratology,” Susan S. Lanser, 2018
• “The Body as Medium: A Phenomenological Approach to the Production of Affect in Narrative,” Amy Shuman and Katharine Young, 2018
• “What Does It Meanto #BelieveWomen? Popular Feminism and Survivor Narratives,” Tanya Serisier, 2022
• “Queer Narrative Theory and the Relationality of Form,” Tyler Bradway, 2021
• “The Space Between: A Narrative Approach to Alison Bechdel's ‘Fun Home,’” Robyn Warhol, 2011
Software
Moodle
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TEm) Theory (master) | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |