124183 VK BEd 08b.3: VK Cultural Studies for Language Teachers (2018W)

2018 marks the centennial of the British 1918 Representation of the People Act, an Act of Parliament which extended the franchise in parliamentary elections to women who met a number of qualifications. It was only 10 years later, in 1928 that the Equal Franchise Act gave women electoral equality with men. 2018 is therefore a good year to look at what is called “The Woman Question”, which means the debate over the role of women in society. In this class we will therefore look at dominant, residual and emerging versions of femininities. We will start out our explorations with the 2017 best-selling manifesto Woman and Power by Mary Beard, a book in which the author traces the uneasy relationship between a woman’s voice and a woman’s power from antiquity to the present day. Our readings will span a variety of topics and will include surveys of Victorian conduct books and women’s journals to learn about the tenacity of dominant stereotypes. We will also look at female voices arguing from within the British Cultural Studies tradition to see where we stand now in (post-) postfeminist times. Part of the classwork will be also hands-on with a focus on the intricacies and practicalities of the EFL classroom.