Women Coming of Age in Literature

What does it mean for a young woman to come of age on the page? This course explores how women writers have redefined the bildungsroman—the “novel of formation”—to center female experience, creativity, and struggle. Reading works from the mid-twentieth century to today, we will trace how authors depict growth, ambition, friendship, and independence against the pressures of family, culture, and society. Texts may include Jamaica Kincaid, Simone de Beauvoir, Elena Ferrante, Mary McCarthy, Sia Figiel, Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, and Barnard’s own June Jordan, Edwidge Danticat, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Zora Neale Hurston. Alongside close reading and discussion, students will write their own coming-of-age narratives—personal or imagined—and experiment with how literature captures the moment when a voice becomes its own.