Why We Should Teach Women’s Life Writing in English Class

• 발행기관: 한국영미문학교육학회
• 저자명: 유현주(Hyun-Joo Yoo)
• 간행물 정보: 『영미문학교육』영미문학교육 제24집 2호, 183~205쪽, 전체 23쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2020.09.30

영문 초록

Stories about women’s traumatized childhood and adolescence are often treated as insignificant, dangerous, and thus noncanonical, and are generally omitted from the English literature curriculum. Teachers may resist teaching literary texts, such as Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Marguerite Duras’s The Lover, that specifically foreground thorny issues of racial conflict, sexuality, class, or disability/illness. However, I claim that the exclusionary historical, social construction of the literary canon should be interrupted, disrupted, and constantly reconfigured to include and represent all angles and aspects of diversity that exist in the world. This paper examines the ongoing debate between traditionalists and multiculturalists about which literary works should constitute the canon, explores various theoretical movements to expand the canon, and finally argues for the pedagogical value of teaching women’s life writings about trauma in English classes.

목차

I. Introduction

II. The Canon War

III. Discrimination and Revaluation of Women’s Life Writings

IV. Why and How to Teach Women’s Life Writings about Trauma in English Classes

V. Conclusion

Works Cited

키워드

autobiography canon war life writing women autobiographer