FREN 412 - Topics in Early Modern French Literature: Ecrire la ville

Second Semester.  In this course, we will consider literary representations of the city from the Renaissance through the twentieth century.  We will begin with Du Bellay’s Rome, which loomed large in the poet’s imagination as a cultural and literary model until a visit forced him to acknowledge the complexities of the modern city.  His poems juxtapose the imagined city and the real, the ancient and modern, the permanent and ephemeral, the personal and political.  Later texts will offer us representations of Paris, the authors’ own capital city, as it takes shape and undergoes dramatic physical transformations, constantly reworking the definition of the city and its limits.  Significant attention will be paid to choices of genre.  Readings will include works by Du Bellay, Molière, Montesquieu, Balzac, Zola, Baudelaire, and Larbaud, among others.



Prerequisites & Notes
Prerequisite: Two 300-level courses beyond 301, or the equivalent.
Enrollment limit: 12.
Instructor: Ms. Lucia

Credits: 3 hours