This course traces a lineage of first and second wave American feminism(s) by coupling what we might term "feminist novels" alongside contemporaneous theoretical and historical texts. Through discussions of Cather¿s O Pioneers! and Yezierska¿s Bread Givers we will examine themes and imagery that evidence early stirrings and aftershocks of the women¿s suffrage movement. Stein¿s Three Lives will help us explore feminist approaches to questions of class, race and domestic labor as framed in both public and private spheres. Later, we will investigate the competing discourses of the second wave feminist movement through the pairing of Friedan¿s Feminine Mystique with Plath¿s The Bell Jar. Reading fiction in conjunction with more recent criticism by thinkers like Michel Foucault and Judith Butler will also help us situate and problematize the themes and arguments of each novel. Finally, we will consider some larger questions about feminism, the novel and its reception, for example; can novels simultaneously represent and construct their audiences? How do novels function as political texts? Do feminist novels have to be by women? About women? How should we understand the relationship between literature and social movements?