Autumn 2009     Call Number:     Credit/Hours:G 5
Instructor: Hoefer      Location:
Days:
Start Time:     Length:

Course Description:

The era we’ll be studying, spanning roughly 1550-1700, is undoubtedly one of the richest periods in French literature, especially in poetry and drama. It is a period that sees the emergence of a newly invigorated humanism, and a flowering of the arts and sciences greatly inspired by the rediscovery of many influential classical texts in literature, history, and philosophy. However, the early modern period is also characterized by multiple conflicts—it is an era of cultural, religious, and political upheaval, and many of these tensions relate to social and intellectual changes. As we study the works of several key writers from this period (among them d’Aubigné, Montaigne, Garnier, Descartes, Lafayette, Pascal, and Racine), we will gain insight into major discourses of change and analyze how these ruptures affect the early modern subject. In this fashion, we will adopt a perspective that intertwines history, culture, and literature with the goal of revealing the dramatic tensions and constraints that marked the dawn of modernity. Taught in French.