This course, taught in French, will introduce you to a selection of French texts in which a woman character plays a central role. Through a gendered reading of the texts, we will explore such themes as chastity, obedience, the self and the Other, the “angel in the house,” the vexing problems of love, lovers, marriage, family, self-determination, and self-expression. In female-voiced texts, the confirmation or rejection of traditional gender roles is articulated by a series of submissive or resourceful women who seek to understand both themselves and the world they live in. Small group work, roundtable discussion, and literary analysis frame our study of women and passion. Authors include Chateaubriand, Proust, Yourcenar, Rawiri, Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet, and Hémon.