In this introduction- to- feminist multiculturalism– and- literary-studies course, students will read nineteenth-to-twenty-first-century women’s fiction, drama, and poetry while broadening their exposure to writers who are typically left out of the mainstream canon. We will start with figures like Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott and then move through lesser-known writers like Mary Amparo Ruiz de Burton before tackling modern and contemporary authors and poets from around the world like Colette, Zora Neale Hurston, Hanan al-Shaykh, Sandra Cisneros, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. As the title suggests, students will learn how to out into context historical social mores for femininity within primary texts by applying theoretical readings and learning to identify unique cultural politics within those works. They will also identify which formal conventions remain integral to the characterization of women and heroines as these ideas seem to change over time.