RLFR 310(S) Sexuality and Seduction in Nineteenth an Twentieth-Century France (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 310)
In 1857, both Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal
were put on trial for sexual indecency and "crimes against public morality." In
1868, Le Figaro attacked Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin as "putrid literature" for
its depiction of adultery, murder, and scandalous sexuality in nineteenth-century
Paris. A century later, Gide, Colette, and Duras continued to shock French readers with their extraordinary novels on male and female homosexuality, inter-
generational lovers, and bi-racial relationships. In this course, we will examine a
wide range of issues on eroticism and sexuality in nineteenth- and twentieth-
century French literature, including marriage and adultery, seduction and desire,
love and betrayal, prostitution and fetishism, gay and lesbian identity, cross-
dressing and gender representation, exoticism and colonial (s)exploitation.
Readings to include novels, shorts stories, and poems by Chateaubriand,
Constant, Duras, Balzac, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Zola, Maupassant, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gide, Proust, Colette, Duras, and Guibert. Conducted in French.
Format: seminar. Requirements: active class participation, two short papers, an
oral presentation, and a final paper.
Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). If overenrolled, preference given to French,
Comparative Literature, and Women's and Gender Studies majors and those
with compelling justification for admission.