LIT 170 CM - Women and Comedy

A study of women’s comic writing in poetry, prose, drama, and fiction. We will begin with the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, and read British and American authors from the 17^th century to the present, including Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Inchbald, “Fanny Fern,” Emily Dickinson, Marietta Holley, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, and Fay Weldon. We will conclude with a segment on stand-up comedy. Special attention will be given to feminist theories of comedy and to a consideration of comedy as a vehicle for social criticism.

Offered: Every other year

Credit: 1

Course Number: LIT 170 CM