The course opened with an overview of the syllabus.  If students have questions, they should contact either Professor McBride or the TA.  With the exception of A Room of One's Own, readings will be available through electronic reserve.  If you have questions about how to use electronic reserves or forget the username and password, please contact a member of the teaching team.  Learning groups for the course will be determined at the next class meeting (1/16).

Lecture Notes:

* Women's history is not continuous.

* Women's writing tended to be quickly forgotten throughout history; women were not able to build upon one another's work
    because they often had not heard of one another.

* Protofeminisms: Feminism before there was a organized social feminist movement.

    * Querelle des Femmes (the debate about women)

        * Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)

        * Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)- "The Wife of Bath's Tale"

        * Christine de Pizan (1364-1430)- first known woman to have supported herself through her writing
           * The Book of the City of Ladies- Discussion of how misogyny (the hatred of women) is internalized through culture
               * Visio- Set in a dreamland
               * Allegory- Ladies in this book represent various virtues; lead her to a re-visioning of a place where women can think

    * The Woman Controversy: the 16th Century

        * Pamphlet war in which people debated whether women were fundamentally good or evil by using the written word

        * Henricus Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535)- On the Nobility and Preeminence of Women; used the Bible to write in
           women's favor (Bible was typically used to condemn women)

        * Jane Anger- Jane Anger, her Protection for Women To defend them against the Scandalous Reports of a Late
          Surfeiting Lover (1589); used women's traditional roles (caring for men, etc) to prove they were good

        * Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645)- Hail, God, King of the Jews (1611); rereads Eden narrative, saying that men are no better
           than women, because though Eve led Adam astray in Eden, it was men who crucified Jesus

        * Joseph Swetnam- The Arraignment of Lewde, idle, froward and unconstant women (1615)

        * Esther Sowernam- Esther Hath Hanged Haman; or, An Answer to a Lewd Pamphlet Entitled The Arraignment of
           Women (1617)

        * Constantia Munda- The Worming of a Bad Dog; or...a sharp Redargation of the Baiter of Women

        * Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)- Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (response to Rousseau); Vindication of
           the Rights of Women

Began watching The Midwife's Tale
 As we watch the video, think about its construction.  How do we recover the past?