Modern Women in Literature and Film

Modern Women in Literature and Film will focus on a century of representation of women "practicing modernity." Leaving behind the so-called "cult of domesticity," ascribed to women in the Victorian era, a new model of woman emerged encouraging women to liberate themselves, manage their own lives and to leave behind anything that might restrict their pursuit of happiness and self-realization (e.g., in professional career, in a social or political movement or in new styles of love and life defying convention and social norms). What kind of choices did women have in the modern world and the modern city? How did they succeed or fail or both in pursuing happiness and fulfillment? What conflicts did they have to work through, what different practices and decision-making processes emerge from their lives? The seminar explores European and American key writers and artists, who created new narratives, poetic and visual languages, and a new consciousness about women in the modern world.