16.00 Credits
Faculty: Stacey Davis (French history), Marianne Bailey (French literature) Major areas of study include French cultural history, literature, language, visual arts and philosophy. Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome. This program focuses on the literature, art, history and culture of France from the Medieval, Renaissance and Classical eras. A tension of two world views marked intellectual and artistic works as well as French social life during these centuries. On one hand lay a traditional world view rooted in the material, the body and the seasonal cycle, a spirit which valued passion and intuition, communality and immanence. Philosophically Heraclitean, it saw the world as flux and becoming. On the other hand was a world view of platonic, ascending idealism, valuing the immutable over the fleeting, trumpeting reason and hierarchy. As we explore these tensions, our guiding metaphor will be the notion of "Illumination," which for the Medieval spirit glowed red-gold as the alchemist's athanor, or gems buried deep. By the 16th century, the crucial "Illumination" for French humanists was that of a mirror, whose reflection shed light on the age's inquiries into the inescapably fleeting but glorious human existence. Finally, in the 17th century, the neo-classical world turned its eyes upward: now the illuminating light of truth came from a new type of monarch, that of the reasoning mind. In this humanities program, we will concentrate our work in the disciplines of cultural history, literature, art history, symbology and philosophy, as well as French language. To a lesser extent, we will also study music and ritual. This program attempts what the French call the "Histoire des mentalités", and as an example and one of our working paradigms, we will use Michel Foucault's studies of sexuality, discourse and reason/unreason. To this end, we will learn about such phenomena as feudalism, chivalric traditions, the rise of courtly love, and the religious reformation and wars of religion which rocked 16th-century Europe. We will study peasant practice and myths as well as explore the conflicts between traditional family and community organization, notions of justice and identity, and the increasingly solidified social, political and religious hierarchies of the Catholic Church and French state as the Middle Ages gave way to the early modern era. We will practice close analysis of literary and philosophical texts (of and about or influenced by these eras); we will read secondary histories and primary texts to see how common people crafted their own identities in light of these changing world views; we will view and interpret imagery of occult, religious and secular traditions; and we will study music and performance rituals. Our readings will include folktales and their earliest transcriptions, including the cycle of the Grail, guest tales, and Marie de France's tales of the conflict between "amour-passion" and duty, or "devoir". Finally, of particular importance to our work will be the influences of the thought and images of these eras in more modern times, particularly for 19th-century authors like Hugo and Artaud, and 20th-century writers like Ionesco, Beckett and Camus. To cement this yearlong inquiry into French thought and culture, students will study the French language at one of four levels. Each quarter these language studies, as well as the reading of literature in French, will be an integral part of the program. In spring quarter, students will have the option to travel to France for ten weeks. There they will study in a Rennes, Brittany language school, visit Paris, and live for several weeks in Lyon (France's most important Renaissance city), as well as make side trips for research and pilgrimages of their own to some of the great French Medieval, Renaissance and early modern sites. Students who elect not to travel to France are invited to continue their studies in French, and to create a personal pr