Week 1+2: Singlehood in Global and Late Modern Times
Reynolds, Jill (2008). The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation, London, Routledge (Chapter One).
Trimberger, Ellen Kay (2005). The New Single Woman, Boston, Beacon Press (Introduction and the First Chapter)
Week 3: Singlehood across Borders
Berg-Cross Linda and el. (2004). “Single Professional Women: A Global Phenomenon
Challenges and Opportunities”, Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5 (5)
pp. 34-59.
Yang, I. F. (2011). “Constructing Shou-nyus' Identity and Desire: The Politics of Translation in Taiwanese Sex and the City” International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(3) pp.235-249.
Week 4: Transnational Feminist Perspectives
Taylor Anthea (2011). Single Women in Popular Culture the Limits of Postfeminism, Palgrave, London. pp. 142-178.
Week 5: Choice and Individualism
Beck, Ulrich and Beck-Gernsheim, Elizabeth (2002). Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequence, London, Sage.
Reynolds, Jill (2008). The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation, London, Routledge (Chapter Five).
Week 6: The Commodification of Singlehood and Solo Living
Bauman, Zygmont (2003). Liquid Love: on the Frailty of Human Bond, Cambridge, Polity Press
(Screenings from Sex and the City)
Week 7: Neo-liberal and Post-Feminist Choices
McRobbie, A. (2004). Post-Feminism and Popular Culture. Feminist Media Studies, 4(3) pp. 255-264.
Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the Media. Cambridge, Polity Press.
(Screening from Bridget Jones Diary)
Week 8: Therapy culture
Nolan, J. (1998). The Therapeutic State. New York: New York University Press.
(Screening of chapters from In treatment)
Case Studies:
Week 9: Loneliness and Togetherness
Alberton, Catherine (2007). What does it mean to be Alone? In: Astuti, Rita and Parry, Jonathan and Stafford, Charles, (Eds.) Questions of anthropology. Oxford, Berg.
Week 10: Post Feminism and Post Socialism
Ksenija Vidmar-Horvat (2005). “Globalization of Gender: 'Ally McBeal' in Post-Socialist Slovenia” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(8) pp.239-255.
Week 11: Waiting for Mr. Right in Israeli and Anglo-American Cultures
Lahad, Kinneret (2012). “Waiting, Singlehood and the Sociology of Time”. Sociological Forum, 27 (1) pp. 163-186.
Ramdas Kamalini (2012). ``Women in waiting? Singlehood, marriage, and family in Singapore''
Environment and Planning A 44 pp. 832 -848
Schubert, Violeta Duklevska (2009) Out of 'turn', out of sync: Waiting for marriage in Macedonia. In G. Hage (ed.) Waiting. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press; pp. 107-20
Week 12: The “Overly Selective” Single Woman
Leyons-Lee, L. (1998). The ‘graduate woman’ phenomenon: Changing constructions of the family in Singapore. Sojourn 13 pp. 1-19.
Yamaguchi, T. (2006). ‘Loser dogs’ and ‘demon hags’: Single women in Japan and the declining birth rate. Social Science Japan Journal 9, pp.109-114.
Participation and Attendance 10%
Class Presentation 20%
Final Term Paper 70%
