First comes love ... really? Then comes marriage ... always? And as for baby carriages ... when they show up at all, why is it so often only on the last page?

This course will examine the history and development of the courtship plot in the Anglo-American literary tradition from the early modern period to the present. Among the questions that will motivate our discussion are: How has courtship changed over time, and how have the stories told about it changed? What is the relationship of courtship to the stories a culture tells about itself? How (and why) have love and marriage come to bear the kinds of cultural burdens that they have? How have writers conceived of courtship in relation to the development of the gendered self? How have writers explored challenges to the traditional courtship plot, which has as its endpoint the union of man and woman in marriage?

Authors we read may include William Shakespeare, Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Ha Jin. Secondary readings will include historical and sociological accounts of courtship, marriage, and the history of sexuality; literary critical and philosophical analyses of the courtship tradition; and feminist and queer responses to the courtship plot.

Students will be responsible for an in-class presentation of secondary readings and/or an aspect of the history of courtship and sexuality, short reading response papers, a final research paper, and an in-class, conference style presentation of their research.