Using a transnational, interdisciplinary, and intersectional feminist lens, this course will examine multiple, complex articulations of women and well-being in literature. Defining well-being to include physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual and/or reproductive well-being, we will read key literary works across genres - novels, short stories, essays, poetry, memoir – alongside scholarly articles to shed light on the gendered terrain of health and well-being in diverse contexts. We will also attempt to relate the textual material to society, polity, and lived experience. Course themes include, among others, the impact of gender role expectations on emotional and mental health; economic inequalities; immigrant well-being; racial and sexual violence; LGBTQ+ well-being; eating disorders, nutrition; and holistic approaches to health. Writers/texts include Margaret Atwood (The Edible Woman), Virginia Woolf (A Room of Her Own), Alice Walker (The Color Purple), Carmen Maria Manchado (Her Body and Other Parties), Casey Plett (A Safe Girl to Love), Ismat Chugtai (‘Lihaaf’), Emily Nunn (The Comfort Food Diaries), Thich Nhat Hanh (How to Walk), Rabindranath Tagore (Streer Patra), Mary Oliver (Upstream), Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth), Gloria Anzaldua (Borderlands), Edna O’Brien (Saints and Sinners), Teju Cole (Strange and Known Things), Sonia Sotomayer (My Beloved World), Rebecca Solnit (Men Explain Things to Me), and others.

Course Requirements:

Course requirements include a weekly journal, one presentation, and short self-care and nature activities.

Intended Audience:

This course meets requirements for the Women's and Gender Studies major and the Gender and Health major and minor.