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Through a study of romance narratives from various time periods and areas of the world, this course introduces students to concepts of literary analysis, genre, and critical reading. As a class, we will examine the content as well as the context of medieval, early modern, and contemporary romances and will consider how romance narratives can be read with a feminist lens. Students will be prompted to think about questions of audience, reading practice, and representation as we move through the course and encounter such texts as 1001 Arabian Nights (n.d.), Pride and Prejudice (Austen 1813), and Funeral Songs for Dying Girls (Dimaline 2023). For example: How do romance narratives engage with, explicitly or implicitly, questions regarding the complex relationship between gender and power? Does a text’s intended audience impact our understanding of its gendered themes? How do people consume romance texts, and how have these practices changed over time? How can we read with a feminist lens that is intersectional in nature? As this course introduces students to methods of critical reading, it will also involve some in-class study of romance/feminist scholarship by authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft (1792), Janice Radway (1984), and Lola Olufemi (2020).