Second Midterm
Women's History and Feminist Theory
History 182/Women's Studies 100
Professor Catherine Lavender
Fall 1997
The second midterm addresses information covered in lectures from October 8 through November 19. In addition, it draws from the course readings up to that date: Patricia Raybon, My First White Friend; Mary Childers and bell hooks, "A Dialogue About Race and Class," and Nancy Cott, "Feminist Theory and Feminist Movements: The Past Before Us." It also expects students to have viewed and be well-familiarized with the films Working Girl and Imitation of Life.
- Drawing on the films Working Girl and Imitation of Life and the autobiography My First White Friend, discuss the ways in which gender, race, and class affect women's historical experiences. What do these three sources teach us about the interaction between these three categories of experience? How does each category transform the others?
In answering this question in a brief (3-5 page), take-home essay, remember to support your argument with specific examples from the three texts (the two films and the autobiography). When thinking about your essay, you can draw from other readings--especially Mary Childers's and bell hooks's dialogue about race and class and Elsie Clews Parsons's journal--and from in-class discussions.
This essay will be due in my mailbox by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, 1997. My mailbox is in 2N 215.
Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 182/Women's Studies 100 (Women's History and Feminist Theory), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, Fall Semester 1997.
Last modified: Monday 17 November 1997.