Women Writers in World Literature

Students will acquire knowledge of the literary creativity of female authors. With the help of theoretical insights provided by feminist theory and theories of gender studies, students will be qualified to assess literary texts, compare them and analyze the reception of female authors. They will become aware of the importance of the category of gender as an important element that constitutes the social and symbolic order at various levels. The particular role of gender and his influence in literary texts will be discussed. The main objective is to develop a sensitivity for concealed mechanisms which are used in the texts and that contribute to the repetition of traditional hierarchies referring to sexual identities.

The course is connected to other literary–historical formations in the field of Slovenian literature. Knowledge in this course connects to that offered in other courses in the field of literary studies.

Students become familiar with the historical context of female authorship and with the historic structure and evolution of the
literary canon which accepts or rejects the literature written by female authors.
Emphasis is placed on readings and the discussion of selected literary works by female writers, poets, essayists, journalists and playwrights.

Students will understand the micro- and macro-poetics of the literature of female authors in both the European and the world-literary context.

• Giorgio, Adalgisa in Waters Le Guin Julia, ur.: Women’s Writing in Western Europe: Gender, Generation and Legacy. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. Catalogue
• Rich, Adrienne: O lažeh, skrivnostih in molku. Ljubljana: ŠKUC, 2003.
• Lukic, Jasmina: Poetics, Politics and Gender. In: Women and Citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe. Ashgate, 2006.
• Lanser, Susan Sniader: Fictions of authority : women writers and narrative voice.London : Cornell University Press, 1992. E-version
• Woolf, Virginia: Lastna soba. Ljubljana: Založba/cf, Lila zbirka, 1998. Catalogue*
• Mores, Ellen: Literary Women. London: The Woman Press, 1978.
• Irigaray, Luce: Jaz, ti, me, mi: za kulturo različnosti. Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 1995. Catalogue
• Poniž, Katja Mihurko: Drzno drugačna. Zofka Kveder in podobe ženskosti. Ljubljana: Delta, 2003. Catalogue
• Zeiger, Melissa F.: Death, Sexuality, and the Changing Shapes of Elegy: Reading Women Writing, 1997.
• Chadwick Whitney: Women, Art and Society. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1990. Catalogue
• Borovnik, Silvija: Pišejo ženske drugače? Ljubljana: Mihelač, 1995. Catalogue
• K. Ursula: Dancing on the Edge of the World. New York: Grove Press, 1989.
• Mezei, Kathy: Ambiguous discourse: feminist narratology & British women writers. Chapel Hill, London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Catalogue
• Database WomenWriters, the Reception of their Works: http://www.womenwriters.nl/index.php/Database_WomenWriters

Written examination 70 %
2 entries Wikipedia 10 %
Seminar discussions participation 20 %

Prof. Katja Mihurko Poniž, PhD is Professor in Literature and a dean of the School of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica. Her research interests include: women writers, intercultural contacts, representations of gender, digital humanities and history of Slovenian women’s movements.

References:
MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Od lastnega glasu do lastne sobe: literarne ustvarjalke od začetkov do modernizma. Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2021. 477 str., ilustr. ISBN 978-961-284-758-6.
159. MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Literarna ustvarjalka v očeh druge_ga : študije o recepciji, literarnih stikih in biografskem diskurzu. Nova Gorica: Univerza v Novi Gorici, 2017. ilustr. ISBN 978-961-7025-02-6, ISBN 978-961-7025-03-3. http://www.ung.si/sl/zalozba/, http://www.ung.si/en/publisher/.
MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Literary journey from north to south : the reception of Nordic women writers, their books and ideas in the Slovenian literary system. Nora. 2019, vol. 27, iss. 1, str. 1-13.
MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Gendering the capital : Zofka Kveder's rhetorical construction of women's position in the urban topography. Neohelicon: acta Comparationis litterarum universarum. 2014, vol. 41, no. 1, str. 63-76.
MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Literary foremothers : women writers in dialogue with tradition of their own. Nova Gorica: University of Nova Gorica Press, 2021. 1 spletni vir (1 datoteka PDF (XXII, 208 str.)), ilustr. ISBN 978-961-7025-19-4. http://www.ung.si/sl/zalozba/, http://www.ung.si/en/publisher/.