Semester 2

This module is designed to give students practice in the marketing and business skills they have developed in semester 1. The module consists of three projects, the first is formative and the latter two summative. The projects deal successively with marketing for: an education provider, a publishing or media company and an arts organisation. The overarching concept of women and representation ensures an in-depth knowledge about the way in which women are represented in both text and image, as well as the ability to undertake comparative analyses of both. It begins with an introduction to gender stereotyping and then focuses in more detail on the way in which historical context and geographical location impact upon the ways in which women are percieved in an intercultural context. Should students wish to focus on gender as a wider context that material is dealt with in the project teaching. Assessment similarly blanaces the group-work in class with the indpendent research and study needed for the essay.

The Module Aims to develop in depth, detailed and systematic knowledge of:

• the construction of female identity in text and image;

   

• a complex appreciation of how time and place affect the way in which different cultures represent women;

   

• an ability to work in groups towards projects;

   

• an ability to work independently on a research-driven essay;

   

• project marketing skills

   

• skills in essay composition.

By the end of  the module students will have detailed, in-depth and sysrtematic knowledge of:

• the construction of female identity in text and image;

   

• how time and place affect the way in which different cultures represent women;

   

• working in groups towards projects;

   

• working independently on a research-driven essay;

   

• project marketing skills

   

• skills in essay composition.

Week 1

Introduction to the module with an explanation and discussion of how Enquiry Based Learning works. This will include information on the module’s aims, the PBL process, resources and assessment. Formation of groups.

Week 2

Beginning work on introductory problem.

Project 1: You have been asked to develop a debate about the way in which children’s literature (nursery rhymes and stories) stereotype women/girls for an adult education programme run by the University of Surrey (or an equivalent education provider). The presentations should be illustrated. Students will be asked to consider:

• Market research on education provider and student body (i.e. gender/ age/ ethnicity)

   

•          Name of course and 3 aims

•          Focus on individual session

•          Place/ time/ context

•          Agree illustrations and texts for next week

Reminder that the assessment is oral and formative.

Week 3

Group work on first assessed problem. Discussion of the breakdown of oral presentations and written materials for assessment.

Week 4

Presentations and discussion of problem 1. Oral feedback on debates.

Essay topics discussed.

Week 5

Project 2: Surrey University Press (or an equivalent publishing/media company) is commissioning a series of booklets on the role of women in different periods; they wish to include excerpts from women’s writing and illustrations from the period. They wish to include an introduction to the booklets that contextualises and analyses the material.

Tutor-led session on examples drawn from the Early Modern period, including the poems of Elizabth I, Mary Sidney/Herbert, Aemilia Lanyer, and Mary Wroth (Norton 1), as well as paintings.

Group work on second problem in which periods/countries are chosen including:

•          What is the market for these publications? Research on the publishing company and customers

•          The series will need a title, with a list of possible publications to prove that the long-term project has been thought through

•          The publisher has asked you to provide one booklet as an example and to explain this to them during your presentation

•          They will need to see your marketing campaign and any related materials

•          Decide roles and functions in presentation

•          Arrange for extra materials

Week 6

Group work on second assessed problem. Discussion of the breakdown of oral presentations and written materials for assessment. 

Week 7

Groups’ presentations on booklets and discussion of contents. Formative tutor and peer feedback.

Week 8

Problem 3: Surrey University Art gallery (or an equivalent arts organisation) has decided to put on a series of exhibitions on the way women are represented in different cultures across the globe. They would like to set text alongside image in the gallery and in the exhibition catalogue. They want to emply teams to choose works and to write up the catalogue from an analytical perspective.

Tutor-led session on women in drawing on Margaret Atwood’s ‘Journals of Susannah Moodie,’ and Alias Grace as well as on photograhic depictions of early women and film extracts.

Group work on third problem in which global areas are chosen and writers/artists decided upon. Students will consider:

•          What is the context for the arts organisation? Decide what sort of arts organisation you wish to work for (e.g. museum/ gallery/ theatre/ community centre/ festival/ charity) and research the area and who will attend the exhibition

•          Remember that funding often comes primarily from government grants. However, exhibitions are often run to make a profit – decide which you want to do.

•          The exhibition will need a title and a list of images – these may be your own or downloaded

•          The organisation has asked you to provide a catalogue and descriptive text explaining the images chosen.

•          They will need to see your marketing campaign and any related materials

•          Decide roles and functions in presentation

•          Arrange for extra materials

Week 9

Group work on third assessed problem. Discussion of the breakdown of oral presentations and written materials for assessment.

Week 10

Groups’ presentations on exhibition materials and catalogues, and discussion of contents. Formative tutor and peer feedback.

Week 11

Plenary session which involved comparing materials from chronological perspectives and global contexts.  Workshop on essays.

Essential Reading

 Poems by Elizabth I, Mary Sidney/Herbert, Aemilia Lanyer, and Mary Wroth as available in The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol I ( New York : W.W.Norton, 2006; 8^th edition). 
Margaret Atwood, ‘The Journals of Suannah Moodie’ in Eating Fire (London: Virago, 2005) and Alias Grace (London: Bloomsbury , 2006)

Please note that other essential texts will be chosen by students themselves, but should be available either in the Norton (as above), on LION or in the Library catalogue.

Recommended Reading

Abelove, Henry, Michele Barale and David Halperin, eds, Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1993) 
Ashcroft, Bill et al, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literature (London: Routledge, 1989) 
Ashcroft, Bill, ed, The Post-colonial Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1994) 
Belsey, Catherine and Jane Moore, eds, The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism (London: Palgrave, 1997) 
Eagleton, Mary, ed, Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995) 
Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic ( Yale University Press, 2000) 
Greene, Gayle and Coppelia Kahn, eds, Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism (London: Routledge, 1985) 
Loomba, Ania, Colonialism/ Post-Colonialism (London: Routledge, 1998) 
Marks, Elaine and Isabelle de Courtivron, eds, New French Feminisms (London: Harvester, 1981) 
McLeod, John, Beginning Postcolonialism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) 
Miller, Hildy, Rhetorical Women: Roles and Representations (Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2005) 
Mills, Sarah, Feminist Readings : An Introduction to Feminist Literature (Prentice Hall, 1996) 
Moi, Toril, Sexual/Textual Politics (London: Methuen, 1985) 
Owen, Susan A et al., Bad Girls: Cultural Politics and Media Representations of Transgressive Women ( London : Peter Lang, 2007) 
Shfrin, Susan, Re-framing Representations of Women: Figuring, Fashioning, Portraiting and Telling in the 'picturing' Women Project ( London : Ashgate, 2008) 
Showalter, Elaine, A Literature of Their Own (London: Virago, 1999) 
Spivak, Gayatri, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (London: Routledge, 1987)

8 September 2010