Race, Gender, and Sexuality (382-0-21)
Topic
Mothers & Reproductive Justice
Instructors
Mariana Eridani Lowe
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
Topic: Mothers & Reproductive Justice.
The role of the mother appears as a "universal" and given category. But who is allowed to be a mother? This course highlights discourses of motherhood that emerge out of women of color feminisms and literary works from the 1980s to the present. I challenge students to read motherhood as a heterogeneous, generative, and at times contradictory relational subject position that allows women of color to challenge white feminism and reclaim their children, both biological and non-biological, from the State that seeks to rupture their relationship. Students will ponder the following questions: how do women of color feminisms complicate and challenge white feminism's concepts of motherhood and its intersection with race, gender, and sexuality? How do labor and care shape the position of the mother? How do literary writers extend and interrogate motherhood as a productive locus to care for others? Each week, the students will read a canonical literary text paired with a theoretical text. For their final assignment, students have the choice to produce a critical or creative work that engages with either or both the literary and theoretical works we have read.
Class Materials (Required)
Toni Morrison "Beloved" ISBN 978-1400033416, Helena Maria Viramontes "Under the Feet of Jesus" ISBN 978-0452273870, Jesmyn Ward, "Salvage the Bones," ISBN 978-1608196265, and Ella Cara Deloria "Waterlily" ISBN 978-0803219045
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area