EN357: All About Eve

Spring Semester 2011

Wednesday 11:00-1:30

Syllabus

Subject to revision

Wednesday 1/19:Introduction: The Stories of Eve

Readings: Genesis, Chapters 1-3

Wednesday 1/26: Ancient Jewish Variations

Readings: Selections from Old Testament pseudepigrapha:

• Eve & Adam, General Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 1-40.
• Sirach in Eve & Adam, pp.48-50.
• The Book of Jubilees in Eve & Adam, pp. 50-54.
• The Life of Adam and Eve, Chapters 1-44
• The Apocalypse of Moses, Chapters 15-43.

Wednesday 2/2: 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

Wednesday 2/9: Patristic Eve

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 128-155, 169-172, 225-248
• Marina Warner, Chapter 4, “Second Eve,” from Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary
• The Service for Representing Adam (“The Play of Adam”)

Wednesday 2/16: Eve’s Renaissance

Readings:

• Eve & Adam, pp. 249-287
• Isotta Nogarola (with Ludovico Foscarini), “Of the Equal or Unequal Sins of Adam and Eve"
• Aemilia Lanyer, “Eve’s Apology, in Defense of Women."

Wednesday 2/23: Paradise Lost, Books 1-2

Wednesday 3/2: Paradise Lost, Books 3-5

First essay due.

Wednesday 3/9: Paradise Lost, Books 6-8

Wednesday 3/16: Paradise Lost, Book 9

SPRING BREAK

Wednesday 3/30: Paradise Lost, Book 10

Wednesday 4/6: 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

Wednesday 4/13:Victorian Eve

Readings:

• Selections from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Drama of Exile"
• Poems by Christina Rossetti: “Eve," “A Helpmeet for Him," “Goblin Market"
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Eden Bower” and “Lilith” (also see Rossetti's painting "Lady Lilith")

Wednesday 4/20: Eve and the Woman Question

Readings:

• 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
• Mark Twain, The Diaries of Adam and Eve.
• Sarah Piatt, "The Coming of Eve" (1900)
• Ralph Hodgson, “Eve” (1913)

Second essay due.

Wednesday 4/27: Modern Eves and Liliths

Readings:

• 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)
• Laura Riding, "Eve's Side of It" (1935)
• Judith Plaskow, "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology," in Eve & Adam, pp. 422-425.
• Lilly Rivlin, “Lilith Lives”
• Ursula K. Le Guin, “She Unnames Them”
• Michael Brown, Chapter 1 from The Search for Eve

Wednesday 5/4: Oral presentations.

Portfolio of response papers and summative essay due.

Thursday 5/12: Critical research paper due.