Critical Conditions: Gender, Literature, and Illness (Pre-1800) In this course we will explore the literary representation of illness and pain in a range of texts from the classical period to the present day, focusing in particular on the intersection of illness with questions of gender, race, and sexuality. Beginning with Sophocles’s tragedy Women of Trachis, we will explore the classical representation of acute pain in the context of early Greek medicine, before examining medieval and early modern literary works inspired by the Black Death, including selections from Boccaccio’s Decameron. The second half of the class will focus on modernist and contemporary accounts of illness, including Virginia Woolf’s treatment of both the 1918 influenza epidemic and so-called “shell-shock” in her novel Mrs Dalloway. We will intersperse our literary readings with theoretical explorations of cure, disability, and ableism by writers such as Eli Clare, as well as work from the emerging field of narrative medicine.

Reading Women's Writing: Living a Feminist Life from Mary Wollstonecraft to Sara Ahmed In this course we will investigate the tradition of women's writing in English from the sixteenth century to the present day, focusing on the complex relationships among writing, sexuality, race, and gender.  We will consider the ways in which writers identifying as female respond to--and often subvert--traditional literary themes and conventions. An organizing focus of our reading will be the articulation or suppression of female anger and other related emotions in a variety of repressive contexts. Though our focus will be primarily on the interpretation of literary works, we will also develop an awareness of relevant debates in feminist theory, from Mary Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary contribution to notions of female education to Sara Ahmed’s concept of the feminist “killjoy.”  Other texts may include: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park; Margaret Cavendish, The Convent of Pleasure; Grace Cho, Tastes Like War; Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage; Harriet Jacobs, The Life of a Slave Girl; Toni Morrison, Sula; Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties; Meredith Talusan, Fairest; and Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, and Mrs Dalloway.

Reading Women's Writing: Living a Feminist Life from Mary Wollstonecraft to Sara Ahmed In this course we will investigate the tradition of women's writing in English from the sixteenth century to the present day, focusing on the complex relationships among writing, sexuality, race, and gender.  We will consider the ways in which writers identifying as female respond to--and often subvert--traditional literary themes and conventions, looking critically as we do so at our own interpretive assumptions as readers. An organizing focus of our reading will be the articulation and/or suppression of female anger and other related emotions in a variety of repressive contexts. Though our focus will be primarily on the interpretation of literary works, we will also develop an awareness of relevant debates in feminist theory, from Mary Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary contribution to notions of female education to Sara Ahmed’s concept of the feminist “killjoy.”  Other texts may include: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park; Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway; Toni Morrison, Sula; Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions; Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage; Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties; Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This, Rebecca Traister, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.

Reading Literature: Theory & Artistry In this seminar we will cover the basics of literary theory while analyzing a broad selection of literature from the sonnet to slam poetry, and from the modernist novel to the contemporary short story. Our goals are to become competent and confident critics of literary meaning, both in its politics (gender, race, class, sexual) and in its philosophy (hermeneutic, formal, deconstructive). Our objects of study are both literature and ourselves. We will even do some creative writing of our own. Authors may include William Shakespeare, John Donne, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, Octavia Butler, Junot Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, and Franny Choi, among others.

Gender, Power, and Politics on the Early Modern Stage (I) (Pre-1800) In this class we will explore the representation of gendered embodiment on the early modern stage, considering as we do so how theatrical embodiment intersects with other treatments of the body in early modern culture.  We will read both early modern and contemporary theoretical accounts of gender as performance, investigating among other issues the use of boy actors, the representation of specifically “female” disorders (e.g., “suffocation” or hysteria), the performance of maternity, and the treatment of same-sex eroticism. Of particular importance will be the representation of the articulate or angry woman as the “shrew” or “scold,” and we will begin the class with an investigation of so-called “shrew-taming” narratives. Primary readings will include: Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale, Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, and Cavendish’s Convent of Pleasure. We will end the semester with a look at how this material plays out in our current political moment, focusing in particular on the representation of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Christine Blasey Ford.

Virginia Woolf in Context In this seminar we will focus on the novels, essays, and short stories of Virginia Woolf, considering them in the light of her social, political, and artistic contexts and commitments.  We will explore in particular the tension in her work between Victorian values and aesthetics and the progressive goals of the modernist movement. Our readings will take us from the early novels (Voyage Out, Night and Day) to the later experimental works (To the Lighthouse, Orlando, The Waves). Some of the topics central to the seminar will be Woolf’s engagement with modernism and its key figures (such as James Joyce); her treatment of gender and sexuality in her essays and elsewhere; and her struggles with mental illness.  We will intersperse our reading of Woolf’s prose with consideration of some film versions of her work, and we will conclude the seminar with a reading of Michael Cunningham’s 1998 creative homage to Mrs. Dalloway: The Hours.

Marion Wells

Reviews and ratings for Marion Wells at Middlebury College.Marion Wells teaches Critical Conditions, Reading Women's Writing, Reading Literature and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Marion Wells good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Marion Wells is one of my favorite professors in the English department, and this was one of my favorite classes I ever took. It's a fun class to satisfy the pre-1800 requirement. I mostly enjoyed the readings, and if I didn't enjoy the readings, Marion Wells found a way to get me interested through her lectures and discussion questions. We had to do close reading presentations but they were super chill. The quizzes were easy as long as you paid attention in class and reviewed notes. The papers were all fun to write, especially the final because it was flexible (could be purely critical or a critical/creative combo). 

Prfoessor Wells is amazing in the coursework she does and is amazing. I am a global health minor and this english class was a great way to fullfil distrubtion reqs while also completing my minor. I would take this class again if I could. There are 10 bigger readings/books, but it isn't so difficult if you do them when you're supposed to. 

Prof. Wells is the best. The class is very discussion-oriented, and I truly enjoyed hearing from my classmates and Prof. every class. The material is very interesting, and while there is a lot of material covered, the workload is manageable with only two major papers and a few other assignments. Would absolutely recommend Professor Wells, truly a great, invested Professor and is extremely kind. 