Women’s Literature is a survey course that explores literary works written from the 19th century to present by and about women in order to better understand how femininity and gender roles are both biologically and culturally constructed. Using the perspectives presented in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex as lens, students will analyze several major literary works in order to explore women’s complex experiences historically and cross-culturally in relation to patriarchy, hegemony, and sociopolitical structures.