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Women's Literary Cultures

CAS WS 382

  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • The Individual in Community

Undergraduate Prerequisites: one previous literature course or junior or senior standing. - Writings by women in diverse literary forms, including drama, poetry and prose. How does women's literary culture reflect historical constructions of gender and sexuality' How do writers engage with new literary forms, like the lyric, political treatise, or the novel' Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Aesthetic Exploration.

FALL 2026 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
A1 Murphy PSY B51 MWF 10:10 am-11:00 am Mts w/ EN 328 WS 382: Gender and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century England The English seventeenth-century has been called the “century of revolution,” but it might better be described as a time of many revolutions—in addition to witnessing the overthrow and execution of the king, England also saw challenges to structures of gender and sexuality, national debates about who got to vote, major shifts in scientific paradigms, an explosion of print media, and new ideas about race and the world beyond its borders.  Through it all, English women took to the streets in political protests, spoke out in Parliament, and used literary forms to challenge ideas about marriage, hierarchy, sexuality, imperialism, religion, and government.  From devout poems to bawdy ballads, from tragedies to comedies, from “serious proposals” to fantastic utopias, these women writers used literature to reimagine their worlds.  By focusing on women writers of this period, we will not only explore the seventeenth century, but also consider how its legacy continues to shape our understandings of gender and sexuality today in both positive and negative ways.  In order to do so, we will read some excerpts from current gender theory and an example or two of 21st-century literary works that brings these 17th-century women to life today. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Aesthetic Exploration.

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