Final Project Idea

For my final project in WMS, I'd like to take a look at women in literature. I have two choices for this project; women writers, and their effects on society in the 1600s; how women are portrayed in Gothic literature. My audience for this will be anyone who wants to listen, I guess. My purpose for this project is to see how society reflects women in the seventeenth century. I may also take a look at how modern western civilization reflects women in literature. I will see if and how religion, race, class and gender intertwine.

I will begin looking into either Gothic literature, or Aphra Behn, the first English woman writer in the seventeenth century. I don't suppose I'm claiming anything, I'm just interested in seeing how women are portrayed, and why. Gothic literature is well known for having spooky settings with a damsel in distress, and is heavy laden with a lot of Freudian reflections. Gothic lit stresses scare tactics, sexual desires, a form of religion or piousness, and familial relations; often it delves into a character harboring incestuous fantasies. I think, actually, I'd like to focus on Gothic literature, and how gender is stemmed around the eighteenth century. The look at what a woman's role is supposed to be, and how society today can have been shaped by it.

I'm unsure, as of now, how I will be presenting this project; I might use a powerpoint to display images of the allegedly archaic representations of Gothic women, to show some of the many different stereotypes of women today.

I guess, in response to the "UN's Millennium Goals," piece, we can look at how society has been shaped, recognize what is important for global education, and entertainment, and create a lifestyle where everyone's needs are met, and most desires can be taken care of. After looking at the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights," I am excited to see how we have grown in recognizing that everyone is expected to be treated justly and to keep a lifestyle where they are not prosecuted for what they are (unless, it's illegal, you know). In response to this, from my final presentation project, Gothic literature allows asylum (especially for religious purposes), but we can see how women are not given a chance to take part in government, their education is much different from the men's, and how differently they are treated due to their sex. Race and class in Gothic lit are most of the time, submitted into the same category. If you are of a particular race, you are of that particular class.