Historiography of Feminist Ideas

Course goals

After successful completion of this course students will be:
1) familiar with key feminist texts and history from the Western canon;
2) able to situate ideas and texts in a historical and political context;
3) able to critically reflect on the social and scholarly relevance of feminist texts;
4) able to distinguish between primary and secondary texts;
5) able to critically evaluate the feminist canon-formation and the politics of history-making;
6) able to use close reading as a method;
7) able to form theoretical arguments and participate affirmatively in academic discussions on the topics discussed in the course.

 

Content

This course engages with primary feminist texts of the first and second wave of the women's movement, in a historiographical perspective. It aims at familiarising the students with traditions of modern feminist thought, and the Western feminist canonby introducing concepts that are central to feminist theory. 
It aims to introduce students to the pivotal moments and influential figures - such as Sojourner Truth, Simone de Beauvoir, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler and Susan Stryker - that have shaped the course of women's rights and gender equality throughout history.
The course explores the scientific relevance of feminist texts in terms of their critique of culture, politics, and knowledge, and aims at introducing students to the efforts made by feminist scholars to systematize these texts in a critical tradition of its own. 
These collective feminist stories of the past are interpreted and adapted by each generation in relation to their own unique located positions. For this reason, notions such as canon-formation and historiography will be introduced in order to emphasize the multiple and diverse nature of feminism’s subjects, as well as feminism itself.

The course will thus both “do” and “undo” the feminist cannon by continuously reflecting upon the “great hegemonic model” of feminism. It furthermore invites students to historical retrospection and exploration of how scholarly feminist insights can contribute to current efforts for a just society. 

The material can be found via the UU library or can be ordered at the feminist book store Savannah Bay (Telingstraat 13, Utrecht): https://www.savannahbay.nl/shop/

This course is part of the minor Gender Studies. For more information about this minor, see minor Gender Studies.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major (hoofdrichting Postcolonial and Gender Studies) are required to complete one of the following compulsory preparation courses: Introduction to Gender Studies (block 3) or Gender, Intersectionality and Cultural Critique (block 1). See https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/ for more information.

Additional information

Priority rules
This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you

• are a student in the BA Liberal Arts and Sciences or Taal- en Cultuurstudies and this course is part of your specialisation (kernpakket)
• are enrolled in the Gender Studies minor
• are an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements

In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.