COML 187 - Possessing Women

Institution:

University of Pennsylvania

Subject:

Description:

Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Chance. A man from Tennessee writes *Memoirs of a Geisha*. A Japanese novelist tells the story of the "comfort women" who served the Japanese army. A tenth-century courtier poses as a woman writing the first woman's diary. Poets from Byron to Robert Lowell, through Ezra Pound to Li Po, have written as though they were women, decrying their painful situations. Is something wrong with this picture, or is "woman" such a fascinating position from which to speak that writers can hardly help trying it on for size In this course we will look at male literary impersonators of women as well as women writers. Our questions will include who speaks in literature for prostitutes--whose bodies are the property of men--and what happens when women inhabit the bodies of other women via spirit possession. Readings will draw on the Japanese traditions, which is especially rich in such cases, and will also include Western and Chinese literature, anthropological work on possession, legal treatments of prostitution, and film. Participants will keep a reading journal and write a paper of their own choosing.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.upenn.edu

Phone Number:

(215) 898-5000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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