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A study of the ways in which literary works shape and are shaped by conventional beliefs about love and happiness. How do representations of romance serve aesthetic and political ends? How does fiction navigate the gap between truth (what is real) and desire (what is wished for)? Special attention to texts that reflect on the (sexual, psychological, and/or political) "abnormal." Readings will include theory as well as literary texts by such authors as Diderot, Sand, Austen, Wilde, and Moravia.