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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Graduate courses in French Literature

In this section:

FRENLIT 207. Writing Utopia in 18th- and 19th-Century France

FRENLIT 222. The Political Unconscious of the Ancien Régime

FRENLIT 224. Libertinage in 17th- and 18th-Century French Literature

FRENLIT 225. Multicultural Molière

FRENLIT 247. Science and Literary Discourse in 19th-Century France

FRENLIT 248. Literature, History, and Representation

FRENLIT 256. Mind and Body in 20th-Century French Fiction

FRENLIT 293A. Topics in French Literature and Philosophy

FRENLIT 293B. Topics in French Literature and Philosophy

FRENLIT 299. Individual Work

FRENLIT 399. Individual Work

Up one level:

French Literature (FRENLIT) Courses

Primarily for graduate students; undergraduates may enroll with consent of instructor.

FRENLIT 207. Writing Utopia in 18th- and 19th-Century France

Themes and ideas in portrayals of alternative societies. Political, moral, and scientific questions that challenge the cultural context. Readings of positive (utopian) and negative (dystopian) works include: Denis Diderot, Le Voyage de Bougainville; Voltaire, Micromégas; Louis-Sébastien Mercier, L'An 2440; Saint-Simon, Lettre d'un habitant de Genève à ses contemporains; Fourier, Le nouveau monde amoureux; Jules Verne, Paris au XXe siècle.

3-5 units, Aut (Castonguay-Bélanger, J)

FRENLIT 222. The Political Unconscious of the Ancien Régime

The lasting influence in Europe of absolutism. Topics include political theories, the importance of court life, art as a political tool, modifications in human sensibility, literature, and social transformations.

3-5 units, Aut (Apostolides, J)

FRENLIT 224. Libertinage in 17th- and 18th-Century French Literature

Intellectual, political, and cultural history of France. The distinction between the intellectual and philosophical libertinage of the classical age and a moral libertinage more specific to the 18th century. Readings of representative works of libertine literature include Cyrano de Bergerac and Théophile de Viau, Les égarements du coeur et de l'esprit from Crebillon, Les liaisons dangereuses from Laclos, and Point de lendemain from Vivant Denon.

3-5 units, Win (Castonguay-Bélanger, J)

FRENLIT 225. Multicultural Molière

Molière's life and work as a point of departure for the notion of multiculturalism. Born in a bourgeois family, Molière was in contact with social milieux including the French peasantry for whom he wrote farces, and the court of Louis XIV for whom he provided spectacles at Versailles. Major plays, including Tartuffe, Le bourgeois gentilhomme, and Le malde imaginaire as the expression of the new court culture. Sociohistorical and contemporary literary approaches: Molière as the unifying artistic figure in a multicultural France.

3-5 units, Spr (Apostolides, J)

FRENLIT 247. Science and Literary Discourse in 19th-Century France

How the sociopolitical intertwines with scientific fact on the literary canvas. Representations of contemporaneous technological inventions and scientific discoveries; modes of appropriating science and scientific discourse in literary production. Balzac, Sand, Zola, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Cros, Valéry.

3-5 units, Win (Joseph, R)

FRENLIT 248. Literature, History, and Representation

(Same as COMPLIT 250.) Literary works as historical narratives; texts which envision ways of reconstructing or representing an ancient or immediate past through collective or individual narratives. Narration and narrator; relation between individual and collective history; historical events and how they have shaped the narratives; master narratives; and alternative histories. Reading include Glissant, Césaire, Dadié, Cixous, Pérec, Le Clézio, Mokkedem, Benjamin, de Certeau, and White.

3-5 units, Win (Boyi, E)

FRENLIT 256. Mind and Body in 20th-Century French Fiction

How fiction articulates the tensions among the sensuous, the sensual, the embodied, and the aspiration to purity, abstraction, and transcendence. Focus is on questioning dichotomies such as nature/culture, masculine/feminine, sacred/profane, and written word/voice. Authors include Gide, Camus, Butor, Duras, and Tournier.

3-5 units, Spr (Wittman, L)

FRENLIT 293A. Topics in French Literature and Philosophy

Five-week course. May be repeated for credit.

2 units, Aut (Serres, M)

FRENLIT 293B. Topics in French Literature and Philosophy

Five-week course. May be repeated for credit.

2 units, Spr (Serres, M)

FRENLIT 299. Individual Work

May be repeated for credit.

1-12 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

FRENLIT 399. Individual Work

For students in French working on special projects or engaged in predissertation research.

1-12 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

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