RLFR 206 The Female Prison: Convents and Brothels (Not offered 1997-98)

In this course, we will examine eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century texts in which woman's destiny is defined in terms of spatial, social, and psychological confinement in mysticism or sexuality, excluding her from marriage and society. Convents and brothels, schools that teach ambiguous sexuality, subversion, and revolt, may be more interchangeable than antithetical. Texts include Diderot's La Religieuse, Prevost's Manon Lescaut, Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Maupassant's La Maison Tellier, Zola's Nana, Colette's Gigi, and Kessel's Belle de Jour. Conducted in French. Requirements: several short papers and a longer final paper. Prerequisite: any French literature course.

DUNN