Women Writers on Instagram: Expanding the Literature Curriculum through Social Media Performance from a Gender Perspective

Abstract

The present work displays the methodology and results of an activity conducted using ICT and a student- centred learning approach from a gender perspective to expand the curricula of two optional literature modules from the Faculty of Philology at University of Salamanca, Spain. The proposed task is conceived to require an active methodology that favours the development of the students’ affective and social responsibility, consequently boosting competences that respond to the challenges we face as we strive to achieve an egalitarian and diverse society. In addition, the project aims at overcoming the gender gap whilst expanding the literary canon through an active, participative, and critical approach to the subjects’ contents and texts. Accordingly, the students are expected to be involved in the (de- )construction of the canon as they navigate and research varied perspectives, works, and tools – in this case, ICT and transmedial tools. This chapter will thus display the design, application, and evaluation of the activity “Embodying women writers and characters on social media,” in which students, by creating profiles on the social platform Instagram, embody and perform women writers and characters to enhance their knowledge of these authors, their works, and the context in which they were created. In this regard, they also strengthen their empathy towards their situations and plights as invisibilised individuals.

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Rebeca Hernández & Marta Bernabeu
Women Writers on Instagram: Expanding
the Literature Curriculum through Social
Media Performance from a Gender Perspective
Abstract: e present work displays the methodology and results of an activity conducted
using ICT and a student- centred learning approach from a gender perspective to expand
the curricula of two optional literature modules from the Faculty of Philology at University
of Salamanca, Spain� e proposed task is conceived to require an active methodology that
favours the development of the students’ aective and social responsibility, consequently
boosting competences that respond to the challenges we face as we strive to achieve an
egalitarian and diverse society� In addition, the project aims at overcoming the gender gap
whilst expanding the literary canon through an active, participative, and critical approach
to the subjects’ contents and texts� Accordingly, the students are expected to be involved in
the (de- )construction of the canon as they navigate and research varied perspectives, works,
and tools – in this case, ICT and transmedial tools� is chapter will thus display the design,
application, and evaluation of the activity “Embodying women writers and characters on
social media,” in which students, by creating proles on the social platform Instagram,
embody and perform women writers and characters to enhance their knowledge of these
authors, their works, and the context in which they were created� In this regard, they also
strengthen their empathy towards their situations and plights as invisibilised individuals�
Keywords: women writers, teaching innovation, ICT, role- play, higher education,
Instagram, literature�
1. Introduction
ere still seems to be no general consensus, in our day and age, of whether
compulsory literature modules in Higher Education should be modied to
include silenced women writers or if, instead, new optional and complementary
modules are to be created to give space to these neglected authors� At least,
this is an ongoing debate brought up in conferences, lectures, and other
academic environments, especially in those concerned with recuperating
and including authors that have been traditionally excluded from literary
canons and curricula� is was actually an object of debate at the International
Conference “200 Years of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Celebrating Women
Writers and their Legacy” that the authors attended in 2019� Apart from the
varied responses that may arise to the aforementioned question, this comes