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CS92PROD
Forbidden Love: From the Middle Ages to the French Revolution

FREN 397
Spring 2015
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: FGSS 397, COL 289, FRST 397
Course Cluster: Queer Studies

This advanced seminar explores the theme of "forbidden love" in prose fiction, memoirs, poetry, and theater in France from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. We approach it from three vantage points. The first step will be to establish a theoretical, historical, and conceptual basis for understanding of the forbidden, the taboo, transgression, and subversion. This will enable us to contextualize concepts such as love, desire, sexuality, and "gender." Then we will study the texts themselves, focusing on three main themes: adultery, same-sex relations, and incest. Finally, we will watch film and theatrical adaptations of some of the core texts in the 20th and 21st centuries, to understand how and why we appropriate them today. By the end of this course, students will improve their knowledge of a central but often neglected dimension of French literature and culture, become familiar with a method combining an historical approach with the use of essential theoretical concepts, explore how attention to non-canonical and/or "non-literary" material can extend their knowledge of the period, and provide evidence of competence in critical reading and in the presentation of independent research.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RLAN
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (COL)(FGSS)(FRST-MN)(FRST)(MDST-MN)(MDST)(MDST-Art/Arch)(MDST-History)(MDST-Lang/Lit)(MDST-Phil/Reli)(RMST)
Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
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