Deriving from the Latin natūs ‘born’, the word nation has implied both shared political and genetic heritage. In his foundational work, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson ties the emergence of the nation-state to the same concerns with death and immortality that occupy religious thought (10). This class takes Anderson’s observation at his word, considering the nation not only as a political construct but as a means to cope with our own very real human anxieties regarding the survival of ourselves, our kin, and, more broadly, all others imagined as belonging to our community. In this class, we will explore the ways different literary texts seek to define the nation, its members, their memories and their identities. How are we to define Frenchness in the 21st century, as asked by The Class and L’Esquive? How do we understand the basis of our disenchantment when the nation state has failed (The Suns of Independence)? What are the limits of the nation and how are those lines drawn (Ourika) ?  How do we correct lacunae in the national imaginary (Indigènes)? How do we begin to imagine the liberated nation in the colony (Sab)? What encounters are possible between the colonizer and the colonized, between the former colonizer and the formerly colonized (The Stranger and The Meursault Investigation)? This course will involve the writing of short papers in preparation of a more elaborated research project and will cover the basics of research, citation and integrating others' arguments into one's own. Readings are in English. Attendance for the first two weeks of class is required to remain enrolled.

Texts:

• The Class (film, viewing link on bCourses)
• L’Esquive ((film, viewing link on bCourses)
• Indigènes (film, viewing link on bCourses)
• The Stranger (Matthew Ward translation, to purchase)
• The Meursault Investigation (to purchase)
• Sab (in course reader available through Copy Central)
• Ourika (available on bCourses)
• Anderson – Imagined Communities – excerpts

This course is designed to fulfill the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The primary goal of this course is to develop students' reading and writing skills through a series of assignments that will provide them with the opportunity to formulate observations made in class discussions into coherent argumentative essays. Emphasis will be placed on the refinement of effective sentence, paragraph, and thesis formation, keeping in mind the notion of writing as a process. Other goals in this course are a familiarization with French literature and the specific questions that are relevant to this field. In addition, students will be introduced to different methods of literary and linguistic analysis in their nonliterary readings.