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Campus | Haverford |
Semester | Fall 2021 |
Registration ID | FRENH203A001 |
Course Title | Théâtre et raison d'état en France au grand siècle |
Credit | 1.00 |
Department | French and French Studies |
Instructor | Sedley,David |
Times and Days | MW 11:30am-01:00pm
|
Room Location | STO104 |
Additional Course Info | Class Number: 1335 What makes a culture "great"? A good place to explore this question is 17th-century France. It is often thought that during this century, French culture became great—hence the century's nickname, le grand siècle. In this course we will consider the hypothesis of French grandeur, but not to assess it as true or false. Rather, we will approach it as a notion that gets constructed, applied, and interrogated in the 1600s through a series of theatrical, political, architectural, theological, and scientific œuvres. These works—mainly by Molière, Madame de Lafayette, Racine, La Bruyère, Corneille, Descartes, Elisabeth de Bohême, and André Le Nôtre—differ radically in their ideas, forms, perspectives, and effects. Nevertheless, they are all regarded in France as "classics" in that they serve in the classroom as essential ingredients of an education. The significance of this class, therefore, extends beyond the specific period it covers to include French culture in general and the values that it may (or may not) have today. We will pay particular attention to theatrical plays as objects of individual passion and political appropriation, to the place of women with respect to ideologies of state and reason, to the establishment of a centralized––i.e., modern––state, as represented through the palace of Versailles and its gardens. In French. ; Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 and 102/105, or 005 and 102/105 Div: III; Humanities, A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts) (Hav: HU, A) |
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