Men and Women: Love and Hate in Heterosexual Relationships

This is a seminar on literature, gender politics, and cultural history. We will read a selection of influential literary and philosophical texts on marriage, romance, troubled relationships, and the struggle for power between men and women spanning classical Athens to present, and we will review characters from history, mythology, and popular culture who have influenced our ideas and attitudes about heterosexual relationships. We will discuss theoretical readings by Plato, Freud, McKinnon, and Pateman; and literary works by Aristophanes, James Ellroy, Alice Sebold, Kawabata, Lispector, and Juan Bonilla.