Teaching Joanna Russ’s Consciousness-Raising Novels of the 70s: Three Decades Later by Batya Weinbaum, Femspec Issue 16.1

By Batya Weinbaum

Since the turn of the millennium, I have had the wherewithal to create opportunities to teach three literature courses in times and places as seemingly remote as they possibly could be from the energy and spirit of the times and the movement in which Joanna Russ had originally written the two novels I taught -The Female Man and We Who Are About To... In this article, I describe materials used in courses and various student reader-responses especially in terms of term papers undertaken. I offer the observation that what seemed to attract the students in my second attempt to teach The Female Man were her fast-paced in-the-now flashes which apparently transcended the distance between the time of origin and the time of reception for the students much better than slow-reading plodding narratives of lives beginning with conservative values nothing like those held by most of the students years after we had created our movement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Femspec Journal
• Release date: Nov 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310338779

Book preview

FEMSPEC

Volume 16, Issue1 (2016): The Great Age Issue Part 3 

an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to challenging gender through science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, surrealism, myth, folklore and other supernatural genres

Copyright 2016 by Batya Weinbaum. All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author. ISBN1523-4002

To become a tax-deductible Donor ($100), Patron ($250) , Benefactor ($500), or Friend ($1000), contact [e-mail]. To donate, go to femspec.org > Get Involved > Donations, and click on the Donate button. To encourage more institutional involvement with Femspec, we offer a membership package with several benefits: the submission of news and announcements; access to subscription base; reduced hard copy advertisement rates; discounts on products and services; display of materials at exhibit area tables.

Special thanks to the Production Team and peer reviewers: Tangren Alexander, Jana Allmand-Zeman, Suzanne Bellamy, Constance Brereton, Emma B utcher, Emily Cox, Gerardo Cummings, Stacey Hanes, Janine Hatter, Maija Hatton, Veronica Hollinger, Jennifer Lawlor, Helen Merrick, Gloria Orenstein, Melissa Rigney, Robert von der Osten, Batya Weinbaum, and Gina Wisker; and special friends and recent donors Derek Thiess, Robert von der Osten, Veronica Hollinger, Gloria Orenstein, Sylvia Kelso, Naomi Mercer, Sharon Leder, Emmaline D eihl, and Nick Birns.

Acknowledgments for the cover: To coincide with the Betty La Duke retrospective article in this special issue, we have chosen ‘African Creation Myth’ (1988) by La Duke as our cover image.

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Teaching Joanna Russ’s Consciousness-Raising Novels of the 70s: Three Decades Later

Batya Weinbaum

Since the turn of the millennium, I have had the wherewithal to create opportunities to teach three literature courses in times and places as seemingly remote as they possibly could be from the energy and spirit of the times and the movement in which Joanna Russ had originally written the two novels I taught