FGSS 3662

Women, War, and Peace in Europe, 1900-1950

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2019-2020.

This course will examine the often-neglected role of women in the history of war and peace. We will use women's writings—diaries, memoirs, letters, speeches, fictional accounts, and the like—to analyze World War I, World War II, and the Spanish Civil War from a female perspective. Through a thorough reading of British feminist Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, Holocaust victim Etty Hillesum's An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork, and Italian Resistance activist Ada Gobetti's Partisan Diary, we will explore the question of women's autobiographical writing and its political, social, and cultural implications. We will also study other topics, such as women's suffrage, motherhood and family, resistance to fascism, and the Holocaust.

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