Sex, Power, and Narrative

The course examines stories by and about women, and yet it is not a course about women. We will look at the windows through which various women have looked at life, but that life, and even those windows, are not exclusively theirs. We will find in women's stories the conventions that have become integral parts of what all of us think of as story. We will move sometimes chronologically, sometimes by theme, to see how women's story conventions have evolved, and we will be inclusive in our definition of "story." We will look at works from Japan, from Europe, from America - and from American women of several cultures. We will look at novels, short stories, and also movies and television.