Marriage: comparative perspectives
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: A relevant first-year sequence
This subject will examine the significance for women of the institution of marriage in a number of different periods and cultures from ancient Greece and Rome to contemporary Indonesia. The documentation will include legal, polemical and literary texts, which will be considered within their historical context of ideology and practice and analysed to show the various theoretical and experiential ways in which they define the roles of women in marriage.
Assessment
Written (6000 words): 100%
Prescribed texts
Chaucer G Canterbury tales OUP, 1980
Garner H Honour and other people's children McPhee Gribble, 1980
Kayam U Sri Sumarah, and other stories tr. H Aveling, Heinemann, 1980
Olsen T Tell me a riddle Virago, 1980
Webster J Three plays Penguin, 1972
Recommended texts
Atkinson J and Errington S (eds) Power and difference: Gender in island Southeast Asia Stanford UP, 1990
Brooke C N L The medieval idea of marriage OUP, 1991
de Lorris G and de Meun J The romance of the rose tr. H W Robbins, Dutton, 1962
de Pizan C The book of the city of ladies tr. E Jeffrey, Picador, 1983
Gardner J Women in Roman law and society Croom Helm, 1986
Kelly H A Love and marriage in the age of Chaucer 1975
Lacey W Family in classical Greece Johns Hopkins UP, 1982
Lefkowitz M and Fant M Women's life in Greece and Rome: A sourcebook translation Duckworth, 1982
Lucas A Women in the Middle Ages Harvester, 1984
Pomeroy S Goddesses, whores, wives and slaves: Women in classical antiquity Schoken, 1975
Rawson B (ed.) The family in Ancient Rome: New perspectives Croom Helm, 1986
Warner M Alone of all her sex Picador, 1985