Global Arc

What does France fear? Who is afraid of France? With a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries, this course explores themes such as Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, techno-phobia, nationalism and the Front National, post-colonialism, and fears related to environmental catastrophe, "national suicide," immigration and demographic change, changing gender norms, and France's place in the European Union and the world. Using films, literature, and theory, we will map the fears of a nation and determine what they help us understand about France, its history, and its future.

This course focuses on the ways literature, film, but also cultural events and spaces (circus, zoo, museum) present animals as objects of admiration and subjects of performance. We will consider the fascination that animals inspire in humans, which might lead to question the distinction between "us" and "them". What is at stake, what are the consequences, for us and for them, when animals are seen or shown as an elusive Other who still beckons a closer encounter? How do the poetic power of language, or the evocative nature of images, affect their agency and our empathy, and eventually our mutual relationship?

This course examines the book (as both philosophical figure and material object) in the thought of French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida. This course introduces students to Derrida through his published writing as well as his enormous personal library, now housed at Princeton. Students will become familiar with key concepts - trace, différance, iterability, archive, and survival - spanning Derrida's work from early to late. The course will also introduce students to the history of reading and the study of material texts with regular visits to Derrida's library in Rare Books and Special Collections.

What features distinguish popular literature from literature? Can genre novels ever be treated as works of literature? Why are popular novels so popular, and what lessons can we learn from their popularity? This course introduces a selection of popular fictions, mostly from the second half of the 20th century, in various genres (detective fiction, science fiction, topical fiction, satire, and historical reconstruction) with the aim of finding some answers to questions of this kind.

Who wrote about politics in the eighteenth century? Why? And for whom? This course will examine the genres and techniques Enlightenment writers invented to talk about politics in spite of official and unofficial censorship. Coined by Montesquieu, the phrase "political writer" can apply to a wide range of writers whose motivations, purposes, and publishing strategies varied in response to different urges and new audiences. The course is based on the study of primary texts, but also historical documents, such as indictments of writers.