From knights errant to libertines, from the Round Table to the salon, explore French literature and culture in Medieval Times, the Renaissance, and the Ancient Régime. As the rise of the nation-state and court culture shape arts and letters, social and scientific transformations from François I to Louis XVI redefine gender relations, cross-cultural encounters, and what it means to be a subject. Taught in French.
Athena Title
From Chivalry to Enlightenment
Prerequisite
FREN 3030 or FREN 3030H or FREN 3030E
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will demonstrate understanding of the major socio-political structures of the periods covered and will be familiar with their major literary genres. During the semester, they will improve their oral, written, and interpretive skills by analyzing representative texts. Classroom discussions will be based in part on study questions prepared in advance, and students will work together on a group presentation. Written assignments may include midterm and final examinations, short essays, and a longer paper. This course examines the French language and French literature and culture in an integrated manner, with all work done in the target language; oral communication and writing skills are given the same importance as analytical skills.
By the end of the course, students will improve their oral, written, and interpretive skills by analyzing representative texts.
Topical Outline
A. Feudal France: social organization; architecture; orality and literacy; Crusade ethic; courtly texts, contexts, and culture; lyric poetry; Arthurian romance and Celtic legend; Marie de France; Chretien de Troyes; poetry of Charles d'Orleans, Christine de Pizan, and Francois Villon
B. Renaissance France: emergence of print culture; consolidation of monarchy; humanism; colonialism; prose works by Rabelais, Montaigne, and Marguerite de Navarre; sonnets of Ronsard and Du Bellay
C. Seventeenth-century France: the Baroque; culture and literature of absolute monarchy; neo-classicism and Boileau, Racine, and Corneille; comic theatre and Moliere; La Princesse de Cleves and the emergence of the modern novel; moralists La Rochefoucauld, La Fontaine, and Pascal; epistolary texts of Mme de Sevigne
D. Pre-Enlightenment to Enlightenment: works by Lesage, Marivaux, Montesquieu, de Maistre, and Chateaubriand
