This course presents original feminist texts of the second-wave of the women's movement, in a historiographical perspective. It aims at familiarizing the students with traditions of modern feminist thought, and at pointing out issues that are central to feminist theory. The course explores the scientific relevance of feminist texts in terms of their critique of culture, politics and knowledge, and it also aims at introducing the students to the efforts made by feminist scholars to systematize these texts in a critical tradition of its own. Notions such as canon-formation and historiography will be introduced by making reference to second-wave feminism. Special emphasis is placed on the idea of which criteria of selection are adopted in order to define certain texts as 'feminist classics' and to assess their relevance, especially for the so-called "third feminist wave".

The books can be bought at Savannah Bay (Telingstraat 13, Utrecht).

This course is the first course in the minor Gender Studies, for more information about this minor see http://students.uu.nl/en/node/351/gender-studies.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major need to complete a compulsory preparation course: Introduction to gender studies (blok 3), or Gender, etniciteit & cultuurkritiek (blok 1) . See https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/ for more information.