Spring 2009
Courtship and Conversation in French Literature

This seminar examines the codes of love, sexual relations, and sociability as they are represented in French literature from the Middle Ages to the absolutist period. Special emphasis will be given to women writers as arbiters of social standards and literary sensibility. Topics to be explored include: the ideal of "courtly love" and women's response to it, the model of the Italian courtier in Renaissance France; seventeenth-century literary salons; the "honnˆte homme" and the model of "French conversation" under Louis XIV; reactions against court culture. The course will include a two-week visit by Professor Jean Garapon of the University of Nantes, noted specialist of seventeenth-century French Literature. Authors studied will likely include: Marie de France, Balthasar Castiglione, Honor‚ D'Urf‚, Madeleine de Scud‚ry, MoliŠre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Prerequisite: French 312, or 313; one seminar-level co urse in the French department and permission of department for Mentored Advanced Project (499). At least one seminar is required for the French major.

FRN 350 Course Descriptions

Other French Course Descriptions