Course Description

We tend to assume that in the nineteenth century, American women were limited to identities as wives, mothers, or old maids. Any woman who wanted a public voice faced enormous hurdles, including not only a lack of opportunity but also profound social, economic, and legal obstacles. Fortunately, despite these restrictions, many women made a place for themselves in nineteenth-century public discourse, including a few thousand women who worked as reporters, columnists, and editors. Of these women, Nellie Bly, Margaret Fuller, and more recently, Ida B. Wells, are among the few who retain some level of fame; the work of most of these writers remains buried in archives waiting to be unearthed and introduced to a new generation. The writing of these women—tackling topics as diverse as war, social justice, reproductive rights, sensational crimes, and corporate greed—remains strikingly relevant; in this class, we will work as detectives to recover some of these lost texts, recontextualize them, and explore their impact. The digital archives available through the UNM Library and Library of Congress websites make it possible for us to view many nineteenth-century newspapers and magazines in digital snapshots of their original forms; those archives will be our primary source this semester. The first part of the course will offer an introduction to searching in digital archives; we will also steep ourselves in nineteenth-century culture by investigating the writing of several women who worked as reporters during the era. In the second part of the course each student will focus on rescuing a text from obscurity and developing what is essentially a scholarly edition of that text. For questions or to see a syllabus, please contact Dr. Renée Faubion (sanren@unm.edu).

Texts

No texts need to be purchased for this course; instead, we will rely on databases, including those provided by UNM and by the Library of Congress. We will spend much of our time looking at nineteenth-century newspapers and periodicals, preferably using scans of the original publications, and we will also read several secondary scholarly sources. In addition, students will each develop their own reading lists as they build their research projects.

Requirements

In the final project, each student will create a scholarly edition of an article or cluster of articles by a previously forgotten newswoman writing in the nineteenth century. The formal writing assignments will all contribute to this project. Students will also complete an oral presentation. Strong attendance, careful preparation, and thoughtful participation in class are also required.

About the Instructor(s): Renée Faubion

Renée Faubion earned an M.A. in Slavic literature from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in American and British literature from UNM. She has received four awards for excellence in teaching. Her primary interest is in gender studies, including how gender performance and expectations shape responses to cultural phenomena such as serial murder and gothic literature.