AN 334 - Women, Gender, & Folklore

Min Units: 3
Max Units: 3
This course explores worldwide traditions depicting women’s identities and gender identity more generally. Gender identity and expression are thus major topics of this course, but so are intersections of gender with sexuality, social class, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and so on. Many of the stories and traditions studied in this class come from the overlapping realms of folklore, literature, and pop culture.

Folklore can both reinforce misogynist and sexist ideas and challenge such stereotypes. From fairy tales to rituals, folklore depicts binaristic and oversimplified images of women ranging from virgins to whores and mothers to murderers, ignoring the middle ground of lived experience. On the other hand, the traditions that women enact-holiday meals, protest art, etc.-represent women’s identities in a complex relationship to their social realities. We will examine masculinity in addition to femininity, and interrogate the idea that gender identity is binary, dualistic, and hierarchical.

We will frame our exploration of women and gender from the disciplines of folklore; anthropology; and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies. We will also develop an understanding of feminist theory, queer theory, masculinity studies, and other relevant theories of the social sciences, in order to have analytical tools to apply to the materials. There are no prerequisites for this class, but students will learn to think critically with the concepts discussed in lecture and in readings and will apply these concepts to texts and communities while writing papers for this class. Students are especially encouraged to make connections between their life experiences and the notions discussed in class, and to this end we will try to cultivate an atmosphere that is comfortable for conversation but still academically rigorous. (U) Occasionally