ENG/WGS 333: "Her Kind": Twentieth-Century American Women Poets (Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath)

This course will explore the poetry of four important mid- twentieth-century American women poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and Sylvia Plath. We will employ close readings of their work, feminist literary theory, and interdisciplinary approaches to understand their position in literary history, their response to American culture, and their “revisioning” (to use Adrienne Rich’s term) of women’s experience. Special attention will be given to women’s leadership and social responsibility. Fulfills post-1900 B.A. English and writing-intensive requirement.