The course examines the ways in which gender is registered in the works of emblematic English women writers from the late 17th to mid-19th century in various literary genres such as, for example, drama and fiction. The aim of the course is to examine how the relations between the two sexes are constructed in connection with the dominant ideology concerning femininity, which, despite certain differentiations, remains essentially the same. It focusses on female subjection and on forms of resistance to it as these emerge from the literary works, despite their seeming alignment with notions of gender ‘normality’.  In the novels, the interrogation of the dominant gender paradigm is offered primarily by female sexual desire while, at the same time, the essays express the demand for sexual equality in the social sphere.