FREN 3500

Culture and Politics in Nineteenth Century France

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

Nineteenth century France is an interesting laboratory of cultural and political modernity.  Between 1789 and the Commune of 1871, Paris is a place of revolutions and counter-revolutions-as well as the capital of European exiles-where the ideological categories and the utopian imagination of the new century permanently class with tradition and conservatism.  Summarized by the ideas of Progress and symbolized by the Eiffel tower, modernity appears as a contrasted landscape where the dream of a liberated human community and the consruction of a colonial empire merge in the framework of both monarhy and Republican nationalism.  The seminar will explore these topics analyzing both texts (from Baudelaire to Blanqui, from Joseph de Maistre to Tocqueville, from Benjamin Constant to Louise Michel) and images (from Delacroix to Courbet).

When Offered Fall.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: FREN 2310 or CASE Q++, or permission of instructor.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (LA-AS)
Language Requirement Satisfies Option 1.

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