A Feminist World is Possible! - ENG00138H

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Module summary

From Rokeya Sahkawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream (1905) through Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex (1970) to Lola Olufemi’s Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (2021), imagining different, more hopeful feminist worlds has been an important and creative feminist impulse and practice since the beginnings of what we might loosely term feminist politics. And in the current context of late-stage capitalism, climate emergency, and surges in right-wing populism, engaging with such acts of feminist world-making and the alternative ethical, political, and economic frameworks they offer becomes particularly urgent.

Global and interdisciplinary in scope, this module explores a variety of feminist imaginings across space and time: feminist activism, manifestos, and theoretical writing; feminist storytelling and utopian cities; feminist creative practice in the form of literature, art, and film. It asks: What feminist worlds have been imagined in diverse contexts and what forms have those imaginings taken? What alternative ethical frameworks do they offer for reimagining politics, and social relations? What can we learn from these acts of feminist imagining and what new, as yet unimagined feminist worlds might be possible?

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

Global and interdisciplinary in scope, this module explores a variety of feminist imaginings in diverse contexts: feminist manifestos and theoretical writing; feminist storytelling and feminist utopian cities; feminist creative practice in the form of literature, art, and film. It asks: what feminist worlds have been imagined across space and time and what forms have those imaginings taken? What can we learn from these acts of feminist imagining and what new, as yet unimagined feminist worlds might be possible?

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a critical and nuanced understanding of how feminists and/or those furthering a feminist politics have responded to the world through creative and imaginative political expression in a variety of cultural and historical contexts
• Critically analyse a range of feminist cultural texts, concepts and frameworks by means of appropriate inter/disciplinary feminist methods and methodologies
• Critically assess how gendered lives are affected by wider socio-political and cultural issues in diverse contexts, with a nuanced understanding of the intersections between feminist thought and wider socio-cultural debates
• Present complex arguments cogently and with nuance, both in oral and written form.

Module content

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Assessment for this module takes the form of either a critical essay (of 3000 words) or a creative text/artifact (of up to 1000 words) plus critical reflection (of 1500-2000 words).

Throughout the module, you will have the opportunity to pitch, road-test, and develop essay ideas. Feedback will be integrated into your seminars or the ‘third hour’ (i.e. the lecture or workshop).

You will submit your summative essay via the VLE during the revision and assessment weeks at the end of the teaching semester (weeks 13-15). Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to e:Vision to meet the University’s marking deadlines

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline.

Indicative reading

Askew, Kelly. ‘Umoja. No Men Allowed. Review’ (2014) African Studies Review. 57.3: 271-273.

Born in Flames (1983) Dir. by Lizzie Borden. US.

Davis, Angela (2003) Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories.

Easton, Dossie, and Janet W. Hardy (2009) The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Adventures. Berkeley, CA.: Celestial Arts.

Firestone, Shulamith (1979) The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. London: Women’s Press.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (2010 [1915]) ‘Herland’. In The Yellow Wall-Paper, Herland, and Selected Writings. London: Penguin.

Hossain, Rokeya Sahkawat (2022 [1905]) Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag: Two Feminist Utopias. London: Penguin.

Kollontai, Alexandra (1997) Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Writings. London: Allison and Busby.

Lugones, María (2003) Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes. Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Olufemi, Lola (2021) Experiments in Imagining Otherwise. Maidstone: Hajar Press.

Som, Bishakh (2020) Apsara Engine. New York City: The Feminist Press.

Tibol, Raquel (1999) Frida Kahlo: An Open Life. Trans. by. Elinor Randall. University of New Mexico Press.

Umoja. No Men Allowed. (2010) Dir. by Elizabeth Tadic. Australia/Kenya.