ENGL 302 A: Critical Practice

Prof. Stephanie Clare

Course Meeting: PCAR 297

Course Location TTh 2:30 – 4:20

Office Hours: Thursdays, 4:30 - 5:30 and by appointment, PDL A-419

Email: sclare@uw.edu

ENGL 302BA Critical Practice: Feminist Cultural Studies

This course has students practice analyzing racialized representations of gender and sexuality in popular, contemporary American culture. We watch music videos and consider social media; we analyze marketing and interpret photography. We study how popular culture produces racialized masculinities and femininities, and we ponder the pleasures and perils of those productions. Students draw on theoretical texts in feminist theory, black studies, trans studies, and critical race studies to analyze culture. Readings are collected in a course pack. Students draft, in addition to several short writing assignments, two essays. They work collaboratively to revise their writing.

Broad Learning Goals:

• Students should develop an understanding of theoretical discourse sufficient to being able to read and utilize at least one relatively challenging piece of critical theory with intellectual comfort and understanding.

• Students should engage in critical writing sufficient to introduce them to argumentation built upon theoretical discourse and to satisfy the University "W" requirement.

Required Texts:

• A course pack is available at Professional Copy and Print. (206) 634-2689

Topic One: Introduction

January 6: Course introduction (and discussion of GAI)

January 8: Introduction to feminism, gender, and popular culture

Ian Buchanan, “Ideology,” A Dictionary of Critical Theory (New York: Oxford UP).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists (New York: Vintage Books, 2014), p. 1 -12.

Judith Butler, “Gender Ideology and the Fear of Destruction,” Who’s Afraid of Gender? (New York: Farra, Straus, and Giroux, 2024).

January 9, Zero draft 1 due

January 13: Introduction to feminism, gender, and popular culture

Sophie Gilbert, Introduction, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves (New York: Penguin Press, 2025).

Katie J.M. Baker, “Conservative Women’s Magazines with Big Ambitions, and Sex Tips for Wives,” NYTimes (03/21/2025)

Helen Andrews, “The Great Feminization,” Compact (October 16, 2025).

Sophie Gilbert, “No, Women Aren’t the Problem,” The Atlantic (November 2025). (Gilbert II on Canvas)

Michelle Goldberg, “Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists,” NYTimes  (December 9, 2025).

Topic Two: Objectification

January 15:

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 45 – 64.

Richard Dyer, “The Matter of Whiteness,” in White Privilege: Essential Readings as the Other Side of Racism, ed. Paula Rothenberg (New York: Worth Publications, 2005), p. 9 – 14.

January 16, Zero draft 2 due

January 20:

Frantz Fanon, “The Fact of Blackness,” trans. Charles Lam Markmann, in Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader, ed. Les Back and John Solomos (New York: Routledge 2000), p. 257 - 262.

January 22:

To read at home, but with guide: Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen (New York: Oxford UP, 1999), p. 833-44.

In class reading: Catharine MacKinnon, “Sexuality,” in the Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory, ed. Linda Nicholson (New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 158-180.

January 23, Zero draft 3 due

January 27:

Talia Mae Bettcher, “Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: On Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion,” Hypatia 22.3 (2007): 43-65.  

January 29:

Wendy Brown, “Undoing Democracy,” in Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2015), p. 17-46.

January 30, Zero draft 4 due

February 3:

            Writing workshop

February 4: rough draft 1 due

February 5:

            Writing workshop

February 9, final draft 1 due

Topic Three: Dehumanization and (Black) Beauty

February 10:

Please watch: “The Life and Times of Sara Baartman,” dir. Zola Maseko (1999). (available through the UW library)

Sander Gilman, “Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature,” Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985): 204-242.

February 12:

Evelynn Hammonds, “Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence,” in Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, ed. Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick (New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 93 – 104.

Audre Lorde, “The Uses of the Erotic,” Sister Outsider (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1981).

adrienne maree brown, Introduction, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (Chicago: AK Press, 2019). (under Brown 2 in Canvas)

February 13, Zero draft 5 due

February 17:

Jennifer Nash, “Strange Bedfellows: Black Feminism and Antipornography Feminism,” Social Text 26.4 (2008): 51-76.

February 19:

Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes. “Note 51, Beauty is a Method” and “Note 58, Who is on the Shore, and Who is on the Boat” (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2023): p. 79 – 86; p. 93-97.

Joseph Winters, “Blackness, Pessimism, and the Human,” Black Perspectives (September 2017).

February 20, Zero draft 6 due

February 24

In class reading: Anne Anlin Cheng, “Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory for the Yellow Woman.” Critical Inquiry 44.3 (Spring 2018).

February 26

In class discussion: Anne Anlin Cheng, “Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory for the Yellow Woman.” Critical Inquiry 44.3 (Spring 2018).

February 27, Zero draft 7 due

March 3

Celine Parreñas Shimizu, “The Bind of Representation: Performing and Consuming Hypersexuality in Miss Saigon,” Theater Journal 57.2 (May 2005): 247-165.

Topic Four: Conclusion

March 5

            Andrea Long Chu, Females (New York: Verso, 2019), p. 1-38.

March 10

            Writing workshop

March 11 rough draft 2 due

March 12

Writing workshop

March 17, final draft 2 due

Assignments:

1. Seven zero drafts, 2% each (14% total)

These assignments are meant to get you writing and thinking. They are not about producing a polished text but rather about jotting down notes or thinking in prose. Overall, I want you to be thinking about the reading. What was interesting about it? What don’t you understand? What do you think is great about the text? Is there something that bothers you about it? Is there something strange or surprising? Quite simply, what has reading the text made you think? You might want to focus on one passage of the text in particular, or you might want to draw connections between this text and another text. There is no right or wrong here – as long as you are writing about the course material. The simple goal is just to think in words, to write freely.

Behavioral psychologists claim that we can only concentrate on writing for about 25 minutes at a time. For this reason, I ask that you spend 25 minutes on each of these assignments. Turn off the Internet. Turn off your phone. Find a space where you will have no distractions. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and then, 25 minutes later, you will be done!

Generally, students write about 500-700 words. If your text is shorter than this, please either put in more time, or write me an email so we can meet to talk about it.

Please submit your freewriting assignments on Canvas.

1. Two academic essays, 60 % (30% each, 25% for final draft, 5% for rough draft)

You will submit two papers that respond to an assigned essay question. I will give you time in class to brainstorm and to workshop your writing. I will also provide you with detailed instructions for the papers.

1. Participation, 26%

Students learn in different ways, some are quiet, others are quite vocal. That is fine. I expect all students to come to class (on time) having read the assigned reading and prepared to make sense of it.

The course will make use of group work and class discussion. I may also assign some in-class writing exercises, which I will not expect to be polished, but they will count towards participation based on pass/fail.

Because this group work and in-class writing cannot be replicated at home, students will lose 3% for every missed course session that exceeds 2 sessions missed. (In other words, you can miss 2 without losing points). If a medical issue arises, please reach out to me.

English Department’s Statement of Values:

The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use is powerful and holds the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world—skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”

As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities.  Our disciplinary commitments to the study of language, literature, and culture require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and class.  These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.

Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, genders, national origins, political views, and citizenship status; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.

Course Policies         

• Please have the course pack available during our class

• Please turn off your phones in class

• Please submit work on time. If this will be a problem, email me before the due date. If not, late work will lose 10% per day.

• Please submit all your assignments on Canvas.

Statement on Academic Integrity

The assignments in this class have been designed to challenge you to develop creativity, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills. Using generative AI technology will limit your capacity to develop these skills and to meet the learning goals of this course.

All work submitted for this course must be your own. Any use of generative AI tools when working on assignments is forbidden. Use of generative AI will be considered academic misconduct and subject to investigation.

Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university’s imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas.

When an instance of suspected or alleged academic dishonesty by a student arises, it shall be resolved according to the procedures standard at the University of Washington. These procedures are listed here: https://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf

Plagiarism is:

• Copying any idea, piece of information, or expression of an idea (words, phrasing) without appropriate acknowledgement in the form of an accurate citation, reference to the source in the bibliography, and quotation marks around any words or phrases which are not the student’s own.

• Submitting a paper that has been purchased or written by another person or generative AI.

Also prohibited by the Student Conduct Code:

• Resubmitting any work for which credit has already been obtained in another course or for which credit is being sought concurrently.

I consider plagiarism to be a serious violation not only of university policies, but of the vital function of the university in a democratic society. I will follow university procedures in dealing with plagiarism.

If you are not sure what plagiarism is and is not, ask me! Ask before you turn in the assignment!

Also, consult this helpful guide on how not to plagiarize by Margaret Proctor of the University of Toronto:

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize

Statement on Accessibility

Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS directly to set up an Access Plan. DRS facilitates the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations. Contact DRS at disability.uw.edu.

Statement on Religious Accommodation

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).

Grading Scale: