ENGL 290 - 003

Regular Academic Session

5442

Undergraduate

3 units

Graded Alpha

All About Divas

Prerequisites: UCLR 100, UCLR 100C, UCLR 100E, UCLR 100M, or equivalent; please check requirements for declared majors/minors for exceptions.

This variable topics course focuses on a perennial psychological or philosophical problem facing the individual as exemplified in literary works, e.g., the passage from innocence to experience, the problem of death, and the idea of liberty.

Outcomes: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the ability of literature to express the deepest and most abiding concerns of human beings, and how literary works come to be.

Tier 2 Literary Knowledge
Women & Gender Studies

This section of Human Values in Literature will explore literary depictions of the diva. Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are the most visible women in our culture. They are also the most misunderstood. The diva represents empowerment--she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous--but her power comes at a great cost. She risks becoming the object of obsessive fandom, as she is consumed and absorbed into people's lives. She also risks losing her identity, even as she serves as a vehicle for shaping others'. This class uses fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, film, and performance theory to explore the paradoxes and problems of the "woman with a voice" and her place in contemporary conceptions of femininity.

Melissa Bradshaw

TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM

01/12/2026 - 05/02/2026

In person

Lake Shore Campus

Lake Shore Campus

Open

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