Women with Power: Images of the Strong Woman in Western Literature

This course consists of six lectures examining the representation of the strong woman in western literature, focusing on two major questions: Why have women
been granted in literature what they have been denied in life, and what can we learn about literature and ourselves by focusing on the feminine experience and
perspective?

Topics include strong women in the Bible, in Greek theatre, Shakespeare, the Victorian novel, in the plays of Ibsen and Shaw, and in the short fiction of Kate Chopin. Each literary work is examined in its historical context, with special emphasis on defining the role of the woman in her social setting.