As Iris mentioned in our previous post, we would like to extent the Year of Feminist Classics into 2012. However, the chaos of the holiday season and several life events prevented us from getting organised as quickly as we’d have liked, and as a result we ended up deciding to run the project from February 2012 to February 2013. This will give everyone more time to prepare, and will also prevent us from having to wrap things up amongst the end of the year rush in the future.
There’s another important change in how the project is run: we have invited several other co-hosts to join us. All of them are bloggers we admire and whose perspectives we know will contribute a lot to our discussions, and many were active participants last year. Now that there are more of us, we’ll be working in teams whenever possible to make sure there’s always someone around even if life gets in the way of reading and blogging.
Over the past few weeks, the new team tried to come up with a diverse, well-rounded reading list that addresses some of the gaps and blind spots we found in the texts we read last year. Some of our choices are more recent than the ones from the first year’s list, but we believe they’re all more than important and influential enough to be called classics.
Without further ado, here’s our reading list for the New Year:
- February – Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks (Amy)
- March – The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine De Pizan (Jean)
- April – Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano (Cass)
- May – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë read alongside Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Iris)
- June – Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (Emily)
- July – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Nancy)
- August – The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Lauren)
- September – Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua (Melissa)
- October – The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (Jodie)
- November – Beyond the Veil by Fatema Mernissi (Ana)
- December – Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis (Emily Jane)
- January – Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practising Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Eva)
We invite you all to think of this project as an informal feminist reading group. You don’t have to commit to joining the discussion every month, but we’d love to hear your thoughts whenever you’re able to. We’re very excited to read these books together, and we hope we’ll have the opportunity to continue to learn from each other and from you.
So, who’s with us? Let us know and we’ll be happy to add you to this year’s participants list. We’d also really appreciate it if you helped us spread the word to other readers.
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Count me in! This year will be hectic for me so I’m only joining for The Bluest Eye and The Feminine Mystique. I may join you guys for Borderlands too.
I would love to be a part of this! Please add me to the participant list.
Fantastic! Please add me to the list, and I hope to have the time to actually participate! But will definitely be reading and present in spirit!
I was a terrible participant last year, but I promise to do better this year! I’m excited about the books and discussion
This looks like an interesting list (and several books I have on my to-read wish list), so I’ll try to follow along.
Please include me on the partici
I would like to be added to this year’s list.
I’m in! Well, as often as I can with a new baby!
I love this year’s list! However due to my schedule I maybe only be able to participate in a few so I chose Little Women, The Bluest Eye, and Women Race & Class..
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Thanks for joining, everyone! And don’t worry about only being able to do a month or two, it’s absolutely fine. As for signing up, there’s no need for anything formal – we’ll just update the participants list on the sidebar, which is still last year’s. But of course even that isn’t really necessary. We want everyone to feel welcome to drop in and out of our discussions as life allows it.
I was disappointed that I didn’t have time to participate in this last year but I’ll definitely try to join in with at least a few of this year’s books!
I would love to join for atleast one book during the year, as Jane Eyre is already on my TBR shelf
Hi. Great, I would like to join in, thanks for pulling this together! Ruby
I wholly support you with all my heart and hopefully with lots of comments as the year continues for this wonderful idea.
Great list.
I’ve read Jane Eyre and shortly after Wide Sargasso Sea. Both excellent. Regarding feminism in Victorian Lit, I recommend Miss Mackenzie by Trollope. (I’ll review it soon)
I’ll try to join you in July for Little Women, the book has been on my shelf for ages. I’m tempted by The Feminine Mystique too.
I’m in! I didn’t manage to comment as much as I wanted to last year, but the project did springboard my reading! Thanks for doing this!!
I followed you last year, while busy writing a Master’s research project, so no participation from me! This year…I hope to pitch in. Thanks for providing fuel for the brain & a reason (do we need a reason?!) to dive into these books!
Great list! I’m pretty excited about this. Maybe I’ll be a little more timely this year? We’ll see!
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Looking forward to reading books and comments. Reading Feminism Is For Everybody at the moment. Insightful stuff.
All right, I’m in
There are a few on the list that have been on my radar for awhile, so this will be the nudge to get reading.
Belatedly joining in, at least for “The Book of the City of Ladies”, “Jane Eyre”, “Wide Sargasso Sea” and “Little Women”.,
I loved both Jane Eyre & Wide Sargasso Sea – so that should be a great month for you all!
Also, Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua is FANTASTIC.