suggestions for teaching a short novel or short stories?

From: Jen Hill (jh85@CORNELL.EDU)
Date: Thu Jul 31 1997 - 12:10:45 PDT


I'm teaching a freshman writing seminar this autumn called "Science Writes
Women/Women Write Science" which will start off with Frankenstein, look at
19th c. theories of biology and evolution, look at careers,
autobiographies, and writing of/by women scientists of the early 20th c.,
and finally end with "a look to the future" with Donna Haraway's "A
Manifesto for Cyborgs" and either a short novel or a few short stories by
(a) female sf writer(s) in which technology and gender are prominent issues.

My problem: I'm not terribly well read in sf and what I _have_ read (novels
by Octavia Butler, Piercy, & LeGuin) are too long to teach in the two weeks
left in my semester. Any suggestions? I have not read Elizabeth Vonarburg,
although I've read some criticism of her which suggests that her work might
be of interest for this class... (She's not represented in Cornell's
library, alas.)

So, any suggestions for me? Target audience is made up of sharp, critically
sophisticated (by the end of the semester, at least!) eighteen year old
women... and the length of the work would, for a novel, have to be under
two hundred pages. Otherwise, I'm looking for three or four short stories.
Excerpts from a novel could work, too.

You may post responses to the list if you think people will be interested.
If not, you may email me privately (jh85@cornell.edu) and I will post a
msg. summarizing the responses. Thanks in advance for all input!

Jen Hill
jh85@cornell.edu



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