Global Arc

Literary texts represent and often question relations of power and cultural norms, but as a form of knowledge, literature is itself implicated in power relations. Topics range from the work of a writer or group of writers who composed both fiction and political theory or commentary to the function of censorship and of literary trials. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial.

This course sets out to explore the basic ideas, works, and principles of Surrealism as it was developed in France from its inception in the early 1920s into the late 1950s. A very wide array of material will cover diverse literary genres (manifestoes, novels, poems, essays) and media (film, photography, visual art, art exhibition, magazines) to show how the Surrealists wanted to revolutionize both art and life in its political and ethical dimensions. The course is highly interactive, built on a series of students' group activities and projects, both creative and critical, with the use of various media.

In this course, we will examine the representation of the relationship between power and passion during the Old Regime, the Empire, and the Restoration. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which the image of the ruler and the lover was defined and used in literary works, archives, pamphlets, and works of art. We will discuss the emergence of the concept of 'private life', the representation of the libertine both in literature and in politics (Louis XV, Madame du Barry, [Les liaisons dangereuses], Marie-Antoinette), and the image of Napoleon in politics and literature.

A thematic, artistic, and cultural study of the vision and sensibility shaped by the French Revolution and the new bourgeois-industrial society. The course in alternate years will stress poetry and theater or prose fiction, as well as the history of ideas. Close analysis of texts is combined with a broader perspective. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission.

A study of major themes, forms, and techniques in modern fiction. Close analysis of works by Proust, Gide, Céline, Sartre, Camus, Sarraute, Duras, Robbe-Grillet, and Condé. The nouveau roman and experiments in contemporary fiction will be examined as well as the cultural, moral, and political problems of our times. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor

Postromantic poetry, including works by Baudelaire, the symbolists (Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé), such modernists as Valéry, Apollinaire, and the surrealists. Special emphasis is placed on close textual analysis, as well as on symbolist, surrealist, and contemporary poetics. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor

Plays by Molière, Corneille, Racine, Beaumarchais, Marivaux, Hugo, Feydeau, Jarry, Claudel, Giraudoux, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Ionesco, and Beckett, along with consideration of mise en scène, techniques of acting, theories of Artaud, and evolution of such traditions as théâtre de moeurs, boulevard comedy, and theater of the absurd. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission.

Innovations in the theory and practice of French narrative from the 1850s to the present, considered in cultural, historical, and intellectual context. Works by Flaubert, Proust, Gide, Céline, Camus, Sarraute, Yourcenar, and others will be read in English translation. Prerequisite: a 200-level literature course or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes.

What is violence? Visible and invisible, legitimate and illegitimate, the course will examine a selection of critiques of this ubiquitous phenomenon. Topics to include revolutionary violence in France and Haiti, the critique of colonial violence from Montaigne to Fanon and Ouologuem, and the Sartre-Merleau-Ponty-Camus debate over Soviet violence and the Algerian war. Critical writings to include Robespierre, Louverture, Benjamin, Sartre, Arendt, Foucault, Zizek, Badiou. Films will also be included.

We will explore how Proust's work addresses issues great and small, such as art, memory, sexuality, war, spectacles, restrooms... We will read the two ends of "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu" (and more) and examine its influence in literature and broader cultures.