The course offers an insight into feminist theories of the 2nd half of the 20th century to the present day on the examples of poetry and prose writing of important Anglophone women writers. In the first part of the course, the focus is on the meaning and significance of patriarchy and the changes it brings in the private and public spheres of life (Woolf). Also, we deal with the representations of mental illness (Plath) with the focus on eating disorders (Gluck, Atwood, Donoghue). In the second part, we talk about the politics of intimate life and the ethics of care and vulnerability. We read trauma narratives dealing with rape and incest (Toews, Ensler) as well as poverty in the working-class novels written by women (Holdsworth, Hudson). The course also covers a wide range of theoretical texts ranging from Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir to Lise Vogel and Tithi Bhattacharya in order to understand the connection between economic exploitation and social vs. private oppression of women in the contemporary capitalist society.