Contemporary Britsh Women’s Writing: Fiction and Film

Prof. Dr. Vesela Katsarova
Lectures: 30
ECTS: 3

The course attempts
– to outline the wide range of women authors in Britain today;
– to provide a background against which each writer may be read.

A balance is sought among
– those women writers who have been writing since the 1960s;
– those who attracted critical attention in the 1970s and 1980s;
– those who have entered the literary scene fairly recently.

Focus is laid on
– the revitalisation of traditional narrative modes (Murdoch, Drabble, A.S.Byatt, Lessing, Spark);
– the experimental rewriting of fairy tale and myth from a feminist perspective (Carter, Tennant, Weldon, Winterson);
– the process of multiculturalism (Zadie Smith), etc.

All arguments will be illustrated by close reading of representative samples in the context of literary and feminist theory and their translation into Bulgarian. Film versions will be juxtaposed with literary texts in terms of film theory.

Assessment:
– Class participation: 25%
– Assignments: 25%
– Term project: 50 %