LIT 3024 - Fall 2025 - Schiel

This literature course delves into the rich tapestry of feminine perspectives in the short story, as characters and as authors. Our focus will be on women that defy societal norms and expectations—“bad” women—revealing how their narratives illuminate the complexities of feminine through history. We will read a range of works from Virginia Woolf’s cry for creative and financial freedom in A Room of One’s Own to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novella Herland about an all-female utopia—to more contemporary works like Dantiel W. Moniz’s exploration of desire, ambition, race, and familial obligation in her short story collection Milk Blood Heat, and Carmen Maria Machado’s haunting story “The Husband Stitch” which is a blend of gothic horror and folklore that investigates the sacrifices women make within patriarchal structures. We will investigate the art of storytelling through the lens of defiant women, celebrating their complexity. Throughout the course, we will engage in critical discussions about the implications of “bad” behavior in women and the power dynamics at play in their narratives. Through close reading and discussion, we’ll come to deeper understanding of the richness of feminine perspectives. We’ll uncover how each author uses perspective to not only highlight individual struggles but also to comment on broader societal issues.