Dr. Shubhra Sharma
Garland 220-A
shubhra.sharma@vanderbilt.edu
Course Objectives:
The objective of this course is to introduce students to perspectives that have shaped the understanding of women in the 2/3rd world and how women in the 2/3rd world have both challenged and transformed such perspectives through writing and activism. It is difficult to cover the 2/3rd world in its entirety in the space of this course, but the attempt is to critically understand historical processes and in particular colonialism that still determine how we view women’s condition even today and think of interventions that would change this condition.
We begin the course by reading “Orientalism” by Edward Said. Said has argued that colonialism invented the notion of the “Orient” as a way to invent its Self. In the creation of the Orient as the other that is “uncivilized,” especially in its social practices towards women, colonialism established and legitimized the “white man’s burden.”
We follow this reading with critical accounts of how the “white man’s burden” was shared by the white women in the imperial context. In other words, we will examine imperial feminism and the notion of “global sisterhood” that was contested by emergent nationalisms and nationalist-feminisms in the late nineteenth century.
Finally, we read stories and ethnographies by women writers from across the world that displace the very notion of local and global and therefore of feminism and feminist movements. For example, how does an Indian-American woman write about identity that is similar and/ or different from women writers of fiction in India? Or how does an American woman negotiate cultural difference in an Iraqi village without indulging in cultural relativism? Or how does a Moroccan Sociologist write “tales of her harem girlhood,” for an audience that extends beyond Morocco?
This course therefore has a two-fold objective: 1) To critically understand colonialism as a socio-cultural project rather than only a political one, and 2) To critically understand the feminist discourses that borrowed from such a project or contested it.
Required Texts:
Women’s History in Global Perspective: Volume 1, Edited by Bonnie J. Smith, University of Illinois Press, April 2004.
Orientalism By Edward Said, Vintage Books, New York, 1979.
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood By Fatima Mernissi, Perseus Books, Reading, Massachusetts, 1994.
Interpreter of Maladies: Stories of Bengal, Boston, and Beyond By Jhumpa Lahiri, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999
Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of India Edited by Kali for Women, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, New York, 1986.
Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village By Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, Anchor Books, New York, 1989.
Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance, Edited by Nupur Chaudhuri and Margaret Strobel, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1992.
The class of spring 2008 attempted something different. Their final project was to revise their individual class presentations on topics listed below and present these in a blog created in partnership with a classmate. These blog links are listed below. We hope you enjoy the blog entries and also appreciate the hardwork of the students by sending them an email. Thanks!
The Scope of Orientalism (Said: Chapter 1)
Said: 1-72 pp. (Knowing the Oriental and Imaginative Geography and its Representations)
Said: 73-112 pp. (Projects and Crisis)
Orientalist Structures and Restructures (Said: Chapter 2)
Said: 113-148 pp. (Redrawn Frontiers. . . and Silvestre de Sacy and Ernest Renan)
http://orientaliststructures.blogspot.com
Nakita Johnson: Majors, Sociology; Women's and Gender Studies
Vanessa Yu: Major: Child Development; Minor, Women's and Gender Studies
Said: 149-200 pp. (Oriental Residence and Scholarship and Pilgrims and Pilgrimages)
http://www.vanderbiltwgs.blogspot.com/
Claire Costantino: Major, History
Kelley Cook: Major, English
Orientalism Now (Said: Chapter 3)
Said: 201-254 pp. (Latent and Manifest Orientalism and Style, Expertise, and Vision)
Said: 255-328 pp. (Modern Anglo-French Orientalism. . . and The Latest Phase)
http://wgs201said.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Maddox: Major, Women’s and Gender Studies
Madeleine Farrow: Major, Spanish and Literature
The “Gender” of Orientalism
“The Theory and Practice of Women’s History and Gender History in Global Perspective” (pp. 9-47) In Women’s History in Global Perspective;
“A Woman’s Trek” (By Susan Blake) (pp. 19-34) and “Through Each Other’s Eyes,” (By Mervat Hatem) (pp. 35-60) In Western Women and Imperialism
http://perspectivesonwomen.blogspot.com
Katy Menges: Major, Early Childhood Education
Emily Moore: Major, Undecided
The “Race and Ethnicity” of Orientalism
“ ‘The Passionate Nomad’ Reconsidered” (By Julia Clancy-Smith) (pp. 61-78)
http://www.vandywgs201.blogspot.com
Lauryn Smith: Junior, Communication of Science and Technology
“Crusader for Empire” (By Helen Callaway and Dorothy O. Helly) (pp. 79-97)
“Chathams, Pitts, and Gladstones in Petticoats” (By Mrinalini Sinha) (pp. 98-118) In Western Women and Imperialism
http://westernimperialism.blogspot.com/
Lisa Waters: Majors, Psychology and Women's and Gender Studies
The “Religion” of Orientalism
“Gender and Nation” (By Mrinalini Sinha) (pp. 229-274) and “Exemplary Women and Sacred Journeys” (By Julia Clancy Smith) (pp. 92-144) In Women’s History in Global Perspective
http://wgsvanderbilt.blogspot.com/
Lily Chen: Major, Communications/ East Asian Studies
Kaitlyn Greer: Major, History of Art
“The White Woman’s Burden,” (By Antoinette M. Burton) (pp.
137-157);
“‘The White Woman’s Burden’ in the ‘The White Man’s Grave’” (By Dea Birkett) (pp. 177-190)
“Give a Thought to Africa” (By Sylvia M. Jacobs) (pp. 207-230) In Western Women and Imperialism
Link: http://womanlyview.blogspot.com
Annie: Major: Medicine, Health, and Society; Minor: Women and Gender Studies
Nicole: Major: Communication Studies; Minor: Managerial Studies-Corporate Strategy
Dismantling Orientalism or Recreating it Anew? A White Wife’s
Ethnography of a Muslim Community in Iraq
“Shawls, Jewelry, Curry, and Rice in Victorian Britain,” (By Nupur Chaudhuri) (pp. 231-246) In Western Women and Imperialism
http://perspectivesonwomenintheworld.blogspot.com/
Fayrisa Greewald: Freshman, Major Undeclared
Guests of the Sheikh
http://wgs201guestofthesheik3-7.blogspot.com
Kelly Moorehead: Major: Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS); Minor: Women and Gender Studies
http://micaela-tacara.blogspot.com/
Micaela England: Major: Public Policy
Dismantling Orientalism or Recreating it Anew? A Moroccan Woman
Sociologist’s Ethnography of the Harem of her Childhood
Dreams of Trespass
http://micaela-tacara.blogspot.com/
TaCara Harris: Majors, Sociology and Women & Gender Studies
Dismantling Orientalism or Recreating it Anew? An Indian-American
Woman Fiction Writer Writing About Hybrid Worlds
“The Third and Final Continent” (pp. 173-198) In Interpreter of Maladies
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” (pp. 23-42) In Interpreter of Maladies
http://interpreterofmaladiesstories.blogspot.com
Lauren Bates: Majors, Math and Spanish
Gabby Romanoski: Major, Psychology
“Interpreter of Maladies” (pp. 43-69) In Interpreter of Maladies
“Mrs. Sen” (pp. 111-135) In Interpreter of Maladies
“Sexy” (pp. 83-110) In Interpreter of Maladies
http://mrsensinterpreterofmaladies.blogspot.com/
Talia Jackson: Major, Sociology
Ashley Beamer: Major, Sociology
Dismantling Orientalism or Recreating it Anew? “Truth Tales” by
Woman Writers in India
“The Smoke,” (By Illa Mehta) (pp. 63-70);
“The Dolls,” (By Suniti APhale) (pp. 71-96); and
“Midnight Soldiers,” (By Vishwapriya Iyengar) (pp. 160-172
“The Wet Nurse” (By Mahasweta Devi) (pp. 25-62) and
“Tiny’s Granny” (By Ismat Chugtai) (pp. 147-159)