Global Arc

This interdisciplinary course explores the topic of race in France, from the earliest populations to inhabit the land now called France to the multiracial communities that reside there today. Approached through a variety of fields (law, ethnography, biology, literature, philosophy, and political theory) students will study themes such as colonialism and immigration, scientific and juridical racism, anti-racist activism, and various racial imaginaries that mark the country's cultural production. Lecture in English with both English and French precepts.

From colonization to civil war, Francophone Africa and the Caribbean are little understood beyond such grave issues of urgency and violence. However, no society, its people or their realities are homogenously desolate. Through the study of novels, graphic novels, films and stand-up, this course explores the place of humor in French literature and culture of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. By the end of the seminar, students will have engaged with different forms of humor and will have acquired the skills to think critically about the capacity of humor in decolonizing French constructions of racial, gender and ethnic alterity.

This course offers an ecocritical perspective on the nature-culture dualism that has patterned much of Western thought from the 17th to the 21th century, and asks to what extent vitalism presents an alternative to anthropocentric dualism. Setting philosophy (Descartes, Kant, Bergson) in dialogue with anthropology (Rousseau, Lévi-Strauss, Descola), science (Darwin, Bichat, Saint-Hilaire), and literature (Michelet, Thoreau, Kafka), we will question both human exceptionalism and its vision of nature as inert matter.

Is literature a "science"? Can science be "literature"? This class reads literary, scientific, and philosophical texts from the Enlightenment and 19th century from the lens of both history of science and literature. We focus on France, Germany, and England, though we also look at scientific voyages beyond Europe. Other than published "works," we will engage with the rich material culture of drafts, notebooks, botanical specimens, illustrations, and research of all kinds that these fields produced. Our aim will be to deepen our understanding of the complex interrelations of practice and thought among the sciences, philosophy, and literature.

In the Anthropocene, humanity has become, for the first time, a geological agent transforming the conditions of life on earth, but this power itself gives rise to unprecedented challenges, from air pollution and floods to nuclear fallout and plagues, from agribusiness to petro-imperialism. Literature sheds a unique light on this global crisis, highlighting in each case the lived human experience, the distinct visions of nature, and the complex social conflicts involved. Readings include novels, plays, and journalism about oil extraction, megadams and nuclear fallout from France, Russia, India, Nigeria, Japan and the US.

This course explores representations of the World and History in major bandes dessinées (or graphic novels) published in French from the 1930s to the present, and produced by authors of various backgrounds (French, Belgian, Italian, Jewish, Iranian). Informed by theoretical readings, discussions will address key aesthetical, political, and ethical issues, including Exoticism, Orientalism, (Post)colonialism, national and individual identity, as well as the theory of reception, to critically assess the fluctuations of these visions between fantasy and testimony.

This course proposes a literary exploration of the French 17th century, a period that produced many "classics" of world literature, from the comedies of Molière and the fables of La Fontaine to the tales of Perrault. We will study these works both in their original historical context and through modern adaptations and interpretations, in order to assess the reasons for their survival and continued relevance. Some of the central themes are: love and marriage, passion and duty, self and society, truth and fiction, heroism and beastliness. Prerequisite: A 200-level French course or permission of instructor.

The French Revolution is the key event of political modernity. This course examines both its core political concepts and their expression in the general culture of the time. Revolutionary ideas - citizenship, democracy, the nation-state, dictatorship, liberty, equality, representation, progress, human rights - reshaped the norms not only of politics, but also of literature and art. To understand these innovations, we will concentrate on: the theories that laid the foundations for the Revolution; literary and theoretical texts from the major acts of the revolutionary period; artistic and political responses to the Revolution up until today.

France has the largest Jewish community in Europe as well as a strong tradition of cultural assimilation. This course explores literary and film works that represent or refract the experience of Jews in France in the last 60 years. Problems that arise include the diversity in the cultural backgrounds of the French Jewish community, the conflict between "Jewish literature" and French republican ideology, and the role of Holocaust narratives in literary and cultural production. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial.

What's the point of education? What should anyone truly learn, why, and how? Who gets to attend school? Is it a right, a privilege, a duty, an investment, or a form of discipline? Do schools level the playing field or entrench inequalities? Should they fashion workers, citizens, or individuals? Moving from France to the US, and from the Enlightenment to the present, we look at the vexed but crucial relationship between education and democracy in novels, films, essays, and philosophy, examining both the emancipatory and repressive potential of modern schooling. Topics include: Brown, class, meritocracy, testing, and alternative pedagogies.