GRADUATE COURSES IN FRENCH

FALL 2004

(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)

French 512
History of Literary Theory
Prof. Rabate
T 3:00-6:00

This course will consist in an exploration of crucial issues in literary criticism and theory, a field that has undergone massive changes. We will go back to a number of foundational texts in a genealogical manner (Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Kant, Nietzsche, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida, Benjamin) and also work from a few key concepts, such as "mimesis", "canonicity", "ideology," "authority," "performativity" or "subjectivity" in order to problematize the ways in which we read literature. Most of the texts will be taken from the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2001). Course requirements: one oral report based on bibliographical research and one paper (15 pages). No final exam.

French 630
Discourse, Power, and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature
Prof. Brownlee
M 2:00-5:00

An introduction to Medieval French literature by close readings of key representative works from among hagiography, chanson de geste, romance, lyric, historiography and theater. The course will consider the creation and the functioning of these new generic forms in the French vernacular, with particular attention to questions of authority, "truth," and language. Focus will be on the first-person authorial subject, politicial and religious ideologies, and representations of gender. Texts to be studied include La Chanson de Roland, Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot, la Quête du Graal, Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis, Christine de Pizan's Cité des Dames, and François Villon's Lais.

French 650
Studies in the Seventeenth Century
The Royal Machine: Louis XIV and the Versailles Era
Prof. DeJean
R 2:00-4:00

The years during which Louis XIV ruled over Versailles are considered emblematic of French culture. They also mark what is called the Golden Age of French literature. We will read works by many of the classic authors of the French tradition — among them, La Fontaine, Molière, Racine, and Sévigné. We will consider the relationship between these works and the vision of an all-powerful monarchy, the royal machine, being constructed by Louis XIV. We will read the works authored by the Sun King himself — his Mémoires and La Manière de montrer les jardins de Versailles — as the ultimate illustrations of this royal fiction. We will read these literary works in conjunction with some of the theoretical reflections they have inspired: for example, Louis Marin's Le Portrait du roi and Michel Serres's Le Parasite. Finally, we will read sections of Michel Foucault's Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique and his Surveiller et punir in which this period plays a crucial role.

French 670
Modernity and Nineteenth-Century French Culture
Prof. Samuels
W 4:00-6:00

Nineteenth-century France — and particularly Paris — saw the emergence of many of the social, economic, and cultural phenomena we associate with the "modern" age. This class reads literature and art from the time alongside more recent theoretical and historical reflections to explore the significance of modernity. How did historical forces shape cultural trends? How did literature and art define what it means to be modern? Nineteenth-century writers and artists to be studied include Balzac, Baudelaire, Daumier, Flaubert, Manet, Stendhal, and Zola. Theorists include Benjamin, Bourdieu, Clark, Marx, and Simmel.