RLFR 110(S) Révolution(s) Française(s): Literature and Change in France in the 19th and 20th Centuries
After the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century, France entered a period of ongoing cultural upheaval unlike any other. In the realms of literature, the arts and culture, as well as in society, government and politics, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were characterized by change. From Romanticism to the nouveau roman, literary movements succeeded those that preceded them in the same revolutionary spirit that manifested itself in the (first) French Revolution-that of replacing the old with the new, of consciously rejecting what came before in favor of a new and often opposing ideas. This course will examine these two turbulent centuries in French literature. We will explore literary and artistic movements including romanticism, realism, symbolism, surrealism, the absurd and the nouveau roman. We will also see the ways in which cultural phenomena and historical events such as the revolutions and regime changes of the nineteenth century, the World Wars in the twentieth, the censorship and control of the Second Empire, and movements such as feminism and négritude, are manifested in literature. Readings to include works by Lamartine, Hugo, Sand, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Éluard, Senghor, Césaire, Sartre, Beauvoir, Ionesco, Duras and others. Conducted in French.
Format: seminar. Requirements: active class participation, two short papers, an oral presentation, and a final paper.
Prerequisites: French 105 or permission of instructor or results of the Williams College Placement Test.
Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). If overenrolled, preference will be given to first- and second-year students and those with compelling justification for admission.
Hour: LEWIS