"We are so used to disguising ourselves for others," wrote the seventeenth-century author, La Rochefoucauld, "that we wind up disguised to ourselves." Through the study of short masterpieces of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, we will study a variety of authors' different approaches to questions of self-deception, self-discovery, and self-understanding. Writers to be studied include Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Mme. de La Fayette, Chateaubriand, Mme. Claire de Duras, Balzac, Maupassant, Mauriac, Colette, and Camus. Conducted in French. Requirements: active participation in all class discussions, three short papers, one longer paper, one oral presentation. Prerequisite: French 105, or 109, or by placement test, or permission of instructor.