Week 1: Aims and scope of course. An introduction to feminist thought.

Week 2: Developments in women's writing and feminist criticism. Italian women writers. Dacia Maraini, Donna in guerra

Week 3: A social history of women in twentieth-century Italy. Dacia Maraini, Donna in guerra

Week 4: Italian women's movements from 1968. Italian feminist groups and relationship with left wing politics. Carla Lonzi 'Sputiamo su Hegel'

Week 5: Legal reforms and debates of 1970s: divorce, abortion, family law. Oriana Fallaci, Lettera a un bambino mai nato 

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Italian feminist theory. Elena Ferrante, L'amore molesto

Week 8: French psychoanalytic feminist theory and the representation of / relationship with the mother. Elena Ferrante, L'amore molesto  

Week 9: Italian feminist thinkers: Cavarero and Muraro. Francesca Duranti, La casa sul lago della luna

Week 10: Questions of gender and genre. Francesca Duranti, La casa sul lago della luna

Term 3: Individual meetings to discuss portfolio