History 366: Gender & Nation
Fall 2000
Mr. Volk

One of the topics that we spoke at for some length (and in a quite interesting fashion, I thought) was the idea that women are often seen as a "sign of the nation." Chatterjee, for example, talks about this historically in India in his chapter on "The Nation and Its Women" (p. 131). Certainly there are symbolic elements to this designation, as in the existence of "Lady Liberty," "Britannia," "La Marseilles," and other figures. But, for your first assignment, I'd like you to think more about this claim and to put down your thoughts in a relatively coherent fashion as you address it. You all had interesting things to say about this subject at our meeting, but your ideas need to be firmed up and made more cohesive. Your thinking can be influenced and enriched by some of the reading you did last week, by our discussion, and by the film that you will see on Monday, "Wedding in Galilee."

Papers on this topic should be 5-7 pages in length. If you quote from or rely on particular sources, you should cite them in footnotes or endnotes using the form included at the bottom of this message. I am quite open to receiving other projects that would address the same theme but in different forms. Just clear these topics with me, please. Let me know by email or at next week's meeting of any questions you have. All projects are due at the start of class on October 2.

First Citation:

From a book:

Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 34.

From an article:

Sarah Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood, "Gender and National Identities: Masculinities, Feminities and Power," in Remaking the Nation. Place, Identity and Politics in Latin America (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 134-36.

Second Citation:

Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments, pp. 55-6.

Radcliffe and Westwood, "Gender and National Identities," p. 144.