Literature, Identity, Social Class ("W")

103B :  Language and Culture
Spring 2014
S. Maslan

Readings:

Reading to include: Moliere, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme; Marivaux, Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard; Duras, Ourika; Balzac, Le Colonel Chabert; Renoir, La Grande Illusion; Truffault, L’Enfant sauvage; Sartre, Huis clos

Course Description:

How does literature tell us who we are and where we fit in society?  How does literature both create and reflect the way societies work and the way individuals participate in or resist social norms?  How has literature been a means by which people have sought to re-make their identities and re-create themselves or, on the other hand, how have some works of literature both subverted and maintained the status quo?   We will read texts from the seventeenth-century through the present and we will study some films that investigate these questions from all sorts of perspectives.  We will read plays, short stories, and novellas.

Prerequisites:

Students must have either previously completed French 102 or its equivalent, or be concurrently enrolled in French 102. For additional placement information please see Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:

Satisfies College of Letters and Science breadth in Arts and Literature. This course is designated as “W” (writing intensive) in the French major.

Section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes