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TechnographClass finds meaning in chick lit
Class looks at Bridget Jones's Diary as modern-day Pride and Prejudice
By Amy Fishman
Posted: 2/18/05 Section: Features
How often do college students get to read Bridget Jones's Diary as a homework assignment? Not too often, and not on too many college campuses.
According to Iryce Baron, the University is the only college in the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that offers a chick lit course.
Baron teaches English 281, "Women in the Literary Imagination," which is an overview of the chick lit genre, a new genre of women's literature that is post-feminist and focuses on strong, quirky, comical females and the issues they face. One of the course's required readings is Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.
Baron said she started the chick lit course after the success of another English 281 course she teaches called "Icons of Marriage and Maternity in the British Novel," a historical British, feminist literature class.
"The historical class was successful and intellectually useful for the students," Baron said.
She said that it also helped her with her research on chick lit and helped her to create the chick lit course, which she began teaching in 2001.
Baron said she became interested in the chick lit genre when Bridget Jones's Diary first came to the United States. She said that the book is a post-modern version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and that it shows the evolution of women's issues, including social issues, marriage, economics and women's rights.
Tessa Oberg, senior in LAS, took both sections of English 281 last year.
"Combining (the chick lit class) with the historical section made me understand how the discourse of money, marriage, sex and feminism really evolved in the 200 years between Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary," Oberg said.
She added that although things have changed, women are still dealing with many of the same issues, such as inequality.
But Pride and Prejudice is not the only work of Austen's that has a post-modern version. According to Baron, the movie Clueless is a post-modern version of Austen's Emma, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a post-modern version of Austen's Persuasion.
According to Iryce Baron, the University is the only college in the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that offers a chick lit course.
Baron teaches English 281, "Women in the Literary Imagination," which is an overview of the chick lit genre, a new genre of women's literature that is post-feminist and focuses on strong, quirky, comical females and the issues they face. One of the course's required readings is Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.
Baron said she started the chick lit course after the success of another English 281 course she teaches called "Icons of Marriage and Maternity in the British Novel," a historical British, feminist literature class.
"The historical class was successful and intellectually useful for the students," Baron said.
She said that it also helped her with her research on chick lit and helped her to create the chick lit course, which she began teaching in 2001.
Baron said she became interested in the chick lit genre when Bridget Jones's Diary first came to the United States. She said that the book is a post-modern version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and that it shows the evolution of women's issues, including social issues, marriage, economics and women's rights.
Tessa Oberg, senior in LAS, took both sections of English 281 last year.
"Combining (the chick lit class) with the historical section made me understand how the discourse of money, marriage, sex and feminism really evolved in the 200 years between Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary," Oberg said.
She added that although things have changed, women are still dealing with many of the same issues, such as inequality.
But Pride and Prejudice is not the only work of Austen's that has a post-modern version. According to Baron, the movie Clueless is a post-modern version of Austen's Emma, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a post-modern version of Austen's Persuasion.
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