Department of French and Italian

P: One course from FRIT-M 305-308 or M322, or consent of instructor.

This course examines women’s writing in Italy from the fourteenth century to the present day. We will use literary texts and visual art to investigate key questions about the human condition, exploring changing conceptions of selfhood, gender, race, desire, belonging, and individual and national identity. A key focus will be on the ways in which writers use literature to seek to bring about social change. We will work on authors ranging from Catherine of Siena – a middle class medieval woman with no formal education who nonetheless manged to become an advisor to kings and popes – to Igiaba Scego – a Somali-Italian author and one of the most acclaimed writers working in Italy today. Taught in Italian.