Discussion-leading assignment

WST 3015: Introduction to Women’s Studies
Discussion-leading assignment

Goals/Purpose:
This assignment asks students to take an active leadership role in the learning process by sharing information, interpretations, and dilemmas with peers. The goal is to involve students in discovering ideas, to give students more ownership of the course, and to encourage multiple perspectives and viewpoints. Of course, it is also more interesting and fun when all of us are participating.

Description of assignment:
Each student will sign up for one day and present one set of issues or a set of passages from the texts that the student believes are important, confusing, disruptive, rich, or merit our attention for some reason. Use the resources concerning critical reading and analysis given during the first week of class as well as your experience in composing (and listening to others compose) “insightful questions” in class. Your topic should bear clearly and compellingly on the issues of this class.

24 hours prior to your facilitation date, you must email me an abstract of your assigned reading and post it on your blog.

An abstract is a summary of the assigned reading. This summary should be in your own words, pointing to major points in the text. The primary emphasis should be placed on summary, but a few critical comments are acceptable. Outside research and handouts are not required, but you are welcome to explore the possibility of each. The abstract should include and MLA heading/formatting, MLA citation of the text and a one page single spaced summary/review of the reading. At the end of the semester, you can all collect the abstracts made in class and keep them as a resource for future academic research.

During class, you have 10 minutes and 10 minutes only! After 10 minutes you will be cut off. You may talk for a few minutes and invite the class to discuss the idea with you, or you may present for the entire time. It’s up to you how to use your ten minutes. Here are some ideas:

• Pose an interpretive problem or conundrum. For example, How is the writer using a particular word or idea differently from how we might normally use it? Or, do parts of one writer’s argument complicate another’s? How does a particular text challenge or accept dominant cultural assumptions? Point us to passages that will help us to figure things out.

• Offer an interpretation or argument. Take a stand and show us with text why you’ve done so. Invite the class to respond and engage in a dialogue that extends, complicates, or supports your stand.

• Do some outside research and present your findings. For example, what have other scholars said about this issue? Have you found information or data from reliable sources that responds to or enriches the texts we’re reading? Have you found reliable research that counteracts the reading?

• Fun activity or exercise. Just make sure the fun activity comes back to the texts/course materials for that week and deals in critical thinking and analysis.

• Teamwork might be useful too. Students assigned to the same week might work together to present many sides of one larger topic.

What to do in preparation:
Remember that the goal is to discover ideas and enter into new perspectives. Therefore, the most important means of preparation is to know the text well and to be conversant with the issues we discuss throughout the semester. It can't hurt to do outside reading to gain a different perspective, but it isn't necessary.

Also, don't feel obligated to burden us with a mass of information. One idea is enough for 10 minutes. Don’t be worried about having the “right” answer. Sometimes questions (especially in a discussion) are more interesting than answers.

Criteria for Evaluation:

Students should take responsible risks and:

• know the texts well
• provide a cleanly written abstract
• demonstrate knowledge of course materials
• choose an interesting, thoughtful, non-obvious topic that bears on issues relevant to the course/texts, especially for that week
• narrow topics to one main idea or question
• avoid rehashing material already covered or merely telling us what a text says
• refer to specific passages as necessary
• avoid reading to us from notes, but, of course, your jottings are permitted as prompts
• use no more than 10 minutes
• check with others presenting that same day to avoid embarrassing (and grade impacting!) overlap

Grades will be based on how well you meet the criteria described above.

Rules:
If you are absent, these discussions cannot be made up, as that would disrupt the class. If you discover in advance that you have a conflict, a generous classmate might volunteer to trade with you.

Sample Abstract:

Student
Course Title
Instructor name
Date

Stewart, Maaja A. "Wit and Knowledge of the World: Pride and Prejudice." Domestic Realities and Imperial Fictions: Jane Austen's Novels in Eighteenth-Century Contexts. Athens: University of Georgia P, 1993. 40-71. JSTOR. Web. 8 Mar. 2009.

Stewart’s second chapter primarily focuses on hegemonic systems of power that leave the heroine disempowered in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Stewart begins the discussion by pointing to general inequities faced in Austen’s period: “These patterns of power [that render Elizabeth vulnerable] include patrilineal transmission of property, the social vulnerability of women not protected by men, and the social codes of propriety that deny women the ability to initiate action” (40). This vulnerability is a characteristic, according to Stewart, of a space in which women have little power, making fulfillment of female longing dependent on male initiative. Stewart argues that the structure of the novel is reliant on the female/male desire, a desire characterized by a power play in which men control the outcome of female and personal male desire.

Female and male desire is one of the binaries that Stewart begins to explore, suggesting that the binaries function to perpetuate hierarchies that place the masculine above the feminine. Stewart argues that within the binary, one aspect will be minimized by comparison to the other, in this case diminishing the power of women. An example of this is Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy exerts dominate male privilege, an advantage that provides Darcy with ultimate control over desire. This is evident by Darcy’s role in deciding the three marriages of the Bennet sisters. The three marriages cannot occur without the approval and interference of Mr. Darcy. Stewart then goes on to connect the binary of “wit” and “judgment” to the male/female binary, wit being feminine and judgment being masculine. Wit is “relative” while judgment is an “absolute.

Stewart argues that Elizabeth’s increased connection with Darcy, and the social knowledge it brings, progressively disempowers Elizabeth. Her detachment allows her to use wit in the first volume to free “herself from the oppressive situations that would hurt if language granted no escape” (62). Elizabeth loses part of her strength, characterized through wit, by marring Darcy because he now dominates the space. The discussion then extends to Elizabeth’s recognition of Darcy’s power. Upon seeing Darcy’s home, a home in which wit no longer has a place, Elizabeth understands the extent of Darcy’s power. Darcy’s home as the indicator of his power is essential because Elizabeth will never be able to experience this freedom, since women cannot own property. The women control the vocal conversational space while men have the benefit of action and property ownership.

Wit within conversation, according to Stewart, is subversive because it challenges the dominant discourse of judgment. Wit in opposition to judgment “threatens the cultural order of domination” (71). Elizabeth’s wit places her in a position to challenge male discourse and judgment. While Elizabeth’s wit is minimized with marriage to Darcy, Stewart argues that because this change is private, Elizabeth remains a public representation of wit. Austen does not “idealize Elizabeth’s weakness” and maintains Elizabeth’s subversive public role (71).