WMGS 350 - American Women Artists & Cold War Culture

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

Lee Krasner's abstract expressionist painting was praised as "so good you would not know it was painted by a woman"; Mary McCarthy's best-selling novel, The Group, was condemned as a "lady book." Such were the terms governing the critical reception of women's art during the Cold War era of the 1950s and early 1960s. This course will explore the art practice of six American women { playwrights Lillian Hellman and Lorraine Hansberry, novelist Mary McCarthy, poet/novelist Sylvia Plath, choreographer Martha Graham, and painter Lee Krasner} who achieved prominence in their respective fields while negotiating a "containment culture" that equated women's fulfillment with domestic bliss and promoted norms of womanhood regulating female sexuality, labor and representation. Course material will include: McCarthy's The Group, Plath's The Bell Jar, Hellman's Scoundrel Time, Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun, Graham's Night Journey, and selected paintings by Krasner. In addition, students will read passages from Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, selections from Freud, and historical accounts of the politics and culture of the 1.00 units, Lecture

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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