A. Answer one of the prompts from one reading in three to four complete sentences. Respond to two peers. Explain whether you agree or disagree and why. Also, you may explain why you disagree or would concede.
B. If you would like to record a podcast with a peer, you are strongly encouraged to do so. If done, you will receive five bonus points on your next essay
or exam. You can record a phone conversation and upload it or use a Facetime conversation to record. Use QuickTime to do a screen audio recording.
from Pizan:
1. How are both Classicist and Neo-Classical values celebrated in the text and simultaneously criticized through the creation of the allegorical city from a feminist perspective? Pinpoint parallels shown in our world today.
2. Identify whether the arguments against woman are proven to be mimetic or authentic in the text. Does Reason truly utilize Aristotle’s metaphysics and some logical appeals to defy such arguments throughout time to recreate history? Consider Aristotle’s view of being in metaphysics, or existence. Why or why not. Identify parallels here to other feminist critics.
3. Are Socratic values shown in the text through the controversy between Epicurean, Individualism, and Stoicism in the text in a way that is used to preserve the virtuous identity of women throughout time? Why or why not? Create a hashtag to help explain your answer.
4. Can the city be best seen as a compilation of series of myths and legends used to create innovative cultural dynamics versus an allegorical reading? Are the values in the city more utilitarian or utopian? Identify types of logic used to create the city. Give an allusion to the modern world that ties into a similar interpretation of such form of government.
5. Would Reason have used Aristotle as a platform to refute Plutarch’s view of giving a voice to women? Why or why not? Review the article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24750569Links to an external site.
Can the debate here regarding giving a women a voice and platform still be seen as relevant in our world today?
from Shonagon:
1. Can Sei Shonagon’s depiction of gender roles and societal constructs in The Pillow Book be seen as relevant in our world today? Explain.
Identify the importance of structure and hierarchy in Shonagon’s aesthetics from within Japanese culture that can be used as a lens to describe the feminine and masculine gender roles.
2. Does Shonagon’s Pre-Enlightenment empiricism impact the cultivation of androgynous writing in the text? How is Shonagon’s view of equality unique in the medieval Heian court of Japan?
3. Does Shonagon’s work promote anti-humanism? Does her views on emotionalism differ from others in the court? Why or why not.
4. Can Pythagorus’ view of gender be used as a means to explain the essence of gender constructs in the text? Why or why not? Review the following statement: “While Pythagorus encouraged women to be submissive to men, his reasoning was based on the desire to