EN357: All About Eve

Spring Semester 2009

Tuesday and Friday 12:30-1:45

Syllabus

Subject to revision

Tuesday 1/13:Introduction

Friday 1/16: Genesis

Guest lecturer: Rabbi James Prosnit

Readings: Eve & Adam, General Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 1-40.

Tuesday 1/20: Ancient Jewish Variations

Readings: Selections from Old Testament pseudepigrapha:

• Sirach in Eve & Adam, pp.48-50.
• The Book of Jubilees in Eve & Adam, pp.50-54.

Friday 1/23: Ancient Jewish Variations

Readings:

• The Life of Adam and Eve:
• Chapters 1-29;
• Chapters 30-44 in Eve & Adam, pp. 57-60;
• The Apocalypse of Moses:
• Chapters 15-30 in Eve & Adam, pp. 60-63;
• Chapters 31-43.

Tuesday 1/27: The Gnostic Eve

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 108-128
• Elaine Pagels, Chapter 3, “Gnostic Improvisations on Genesis,” from Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
• Selections from Gnostic scriptures:
• Hypostasis of the Archons (The Reality of the Rulers)
• Thunder: Perfect Mind

Friday 1/30: Patristic Eve

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 128-155
• Marina Warner, Chapter 4, “Second Eve,” from Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary

Tuesday 2/3: Medieval Eve

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 169-172, 225-248
• The Service for Representing Adam (“The Play of Adam”).

Friday 2/6: Eve’s Renaissance

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 249-287

Tuesday 2/10: Eve's Renaissance (cont.)

Readings:

• Isotta Nogarola (with Ludovico Foscarini), “Of the Equal or Unequal Sins of Adam and Eve."
• Aemilia Lanyer, “Eve’s Apology, in Defense of Women."

Friday 2/13: Paradise Lost, Book 1

Tuesday 2/17: No class meeting.

Friday 2/20: Paradise Lost, Books 2-3

First essay due.

Tuesday 2/24: Paradise Lost, Book 4

Friday 2/27: Paradise Lost, Books 5-6

SPRING BREAK

Tuesday 3/10: Paradise Lost, Books 7-8

Friday 3/13: Paradise Lost, Book 9

Tuesday 3/17: Paradise Lost, Book 9 (continued)

Friday 3/20: Paradise Lost, Book 10

Tuesday 3/24: Looking Back on Milton’s Eve

Readings:

• John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 11-12
• Three essays on Milton's Eve and feminism in Paradise Lost, pp. 501-520.
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Selections from The Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Friday 3/27: Victorian Eve

Readings: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Drama of Exile."

Tuesday 3/31: Victorian Eve

Readings: Poems by Christina Rossetti:

• “Eve”
• “A Helpmeet for Him”
• “Goblin Market"

Second essay due.

Friday 4/3: Eve and the Woman Question

Readings:

• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Eden Bower” and “Lilith” (also see Rossetti's painting "Lady Lilith"
• Sarah Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Woman’s Bible, in Eve & Adam, pp.340-356.

Tuesday 4/7: Defending the Caveman

Readings: Mark Twain, The Diaries of Adam and Eve.

Friday 4/10: No class meeting.

Tuesday 4/14:Modern Eves and Liliths

Guest lecturer: Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

Readings:

• Judith Plaskow, "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology," in Eve & Adam, pp. 422-425.
• Lilly Rivlin, “Lilith Lives”

Friday 4/17: Twentieth-Century Eve

Readings: A collection of 20th-century poems:

• Sarah Piatt, "The Coming of Eve" (1900)
• Ralph Hodgson, “Eve” (1913).
• Robert Frost, “Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same” (1942).
• Richard Wilbur, “She” (1961)
• Stevie Smith, "How Cruel Is the Story of Eve" (1962)
• Judith Wright, "Eve to Her Daughters" (1966)
• Dorothy Livesay, “Eve” (1967)
• John Hollander, “Adam’s Task” (1971)
• Rob Holland, “Eve in Old Age” (1977)
• Linda Pastan, “A Symposium: Apples” (1975)

Tuesday 4/21: The Evolution of Eve

Readings:

• Laura Riding, "Eve's Side of It" (1935)
• Ursula K. Le Guin, “She Unnames Them”
• Michael Brown, Chapter 1 from The Search for Eve

Friday 4/24: Class presentations

Tuesday 4/28: Class presentations.

Saturday 5/9:Critical research paper due.