Current course offerings

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Course description

By exploring a series of creative and imaginative works from the medieval era to the twentieth century, this course takes you on a journey through women¿s writings and the ways in which gender is understood and performed in Western society and culture. Through reading a range of diverse authors, we will consider how writing by women, for women, and about women adds depth to our understanding of Western culture and its future. These writings profoundly changed the world in which they operated; they not only offer diverse visions of the capacities and capabilities of women, but also illustrate that gender, and the categories of `'woman" and `'man", have been contested sites of debate over the centuries. In addition, we will investigate how these changing, and often contradictory, conceptions of gender offer us with a richer understanding of Western culture and its traditions and horizons. Each week we will examine how attitudes towards women, men, and gender have changed over time, but also how these works continue to speak to contemporary issues and categories of gender today.

Archived offerings