French 322

Love, Marriage, and Family
In 17th- and 18th-Century French Literature
(http://faculty.cua.edu/shoemaker/FREN322/)

Dr. Peter Shoemaker 210 McMahon Hall
(202) 319-5240 shoemaker@cua.edu


An overview of the literature of the period by way of the themes of passion, forbidden love, and the joys and tribulations of marriage. Special emphasis will be given the status of women in early modern France. Primary sources will include plays (Racine, Molière, Marivaux), prose narrative (Camus, Charrière), poetry, and historical documentation.
This course is taught in French.
My office hours: 2:00-3:00 MWF and by appointment

Texts to Buy (at University Bookstore)
:

Charrière, Les Lettres de Mistriss Henley
Guilleragues,
Les Lettres portugaises
Marivaux, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard
Molière,
L'École des femmes
Racine,
Phèdre.


(Other readings, including primary texts and short excerpts from theoretical works, will be distributed in class and on-line.)


Assignments

During the semester, you will complete 4 short papers (1 1/2 pages each=450 words), 1 final project (5 pages on a topic of your choice + a one-page annotated bibliography), 1 major presentation (15 minutes+questions/discussion=25 minutes total), a brief presentation of your final paper (5-10 minutes, during the final exam period), and several informal presentations/writing assignments (assigned in class). Late papers will not be accepted. You may rewrite papers: each version will be graded and the grades averaged.

Attendance

Attendance is MANDATORY and will be reflected in your final grade.

0-3 absences, no penalty.
above 3 absences, your final grade will drop 2 points per absence.

Though I appreciate knowing why you are absent, your explanation or doctor's notice does not allow the policy to be waived. The 3-absence limit includes both excused absences for reasons of school-sponsored activities and any other absences due to illness, family emergencies, oversleeping, jobs, etc. Exceptional cases of prolonged absences (more than one week beyond the initial 3 non-penalized absences) will be reviewed on an individual basis. In such cases, you must provide an explanatory letter from the Dean of Student and make arrangement to make up any missed work.

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Short papers: 32%
Major presentation: 28%
Participation/informal presentations/in-class writing: 20%.
Final project: 15% (paper) + 5% (in-class presentation of paper)

Preparation for Class

Participation requires preparation. Before class, you should prepare carefully:
Write out brief responses in your notes to the study questions that I distribute in class.
Come prepared with your own questions for the discussion. Although you are of course free to ask factual questions in class,
discussion questions should stimulate your fellow students by bringing up issues related to theme, style, character, etc..

PROGRAMME provisoire et approximatif
(des programmes hebdomadaires seront distribués chaque semaine)

8/28 Introduction (Poèmes du XVIe siècle)
8/30 Poèmes du XVIe siècle
9/1 Camus,
Nouvelles tragiques.

9/4 Labor Day
9/6 Molière,
L'École des femmes.
9/8
L'École des femmes.

9/11
L'École des femmes. Composition 1
9/13 Visite à la bibliothèque

9/15
L'École des femmes.

9/18
L'École des femmes.
9/20
L'École des femmes.
9/22 Les Précieuses (documents)

9/25 Les Précieuses
9/27 Les Précieuses
9/29 Guilleragues,
Lettres Portugaises.

10/2
Lettres Portugaises.
10/4
Lettres Portugaises.
10/6
Lettres Portugaises. Composition 2

10/9 COLUMBUS DAY
10/10 (Administrative Monday) La Rochefoucauld,
Maximes.
10/11 Racine,
Phèdre.
10/13
Phèdre.

10/16
Phèdre.
10/18
Phèdre.
10/20
Phèdre.

10/23
Phèdre.
10/25 Marivaux,
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard.
10/27
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard.

10/30
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard.
11/1
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard.
11/3
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard. Composition 3

11/6
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard.
11/8 Charrière,
Lettres de Mistriss Henley.
11/10
Lettres de Mistriss Henley.

11/13
Lettres de Mistriss Henley.
11/15 Les Philosophes (extraits)
11/17 Les Philosophes. Composition 4

11/20 Les Philosophes.
11/24 Thanksgiving

11/27 Laclos,
Liaisons dangereuses (film+extraits)
11/29
Liaisons dangereuses
12/1 Liaisons dangereuses

12/4 La Famille et la Révolution (documents)
12/6 La Famille et la Révolution
12/8 Conclusion

12/13 10h30-12h30—présentation du projet final
rendre projet final


Bibliography

Ariès, Philippe, and Georges Duby. A History of Private Life. 5 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987.
Ariès, Philippe.
L'Enfant et la vie familiale sous l'Ancien Régime. Paris: Seuil, 1975.
Backer, Dorothy Anne Liot.
Precious Women. New York: Basic Books, 1974.
Badinter, Elisabeth.
Mother Love: Myth and Reality: Motherhood in Modern History. New York: Macmillan, 1981.
Barthes, Roland.
Sur Racine. Paris: Seuil, 1963.
Brooks, Peter. The Novel of Worldliness. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969.
Craveri, Benedetta. The Age of Conversation. Translated by Teresa Waugh. New York: New York Review Books, 2005.
Curtis, Julia. "The
Epistolières." French Women and the Enlightenment. Ed. Samia Spenser. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984. 224-241.
Davis, Nathalie and Arlette Farge. eds.
A History of Women in the West: Volume III, Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993.
DeJean, Joan. "Amazons and Literary Women: Female Culture during the Reign of the Sun King."
Sun King: the Ascendancy of French Culture during the Reign of Louis XIV. Ed. David L. Rubin. Washington: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1992. 115-128.
DeJean, Joan E. Literary Fortifications: Rousseau, Laclos, Sade. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984.
DeJean, Joan E.
Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins of the Novel in France. Gender and Culture. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.
Desan, Suzanne. The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France. Berkeley: U of California P, 2004.
Douthwaite, Julia V. Exotic Women: Literary Heroines and Cultural Strategies in Ancien Régime France. Philadelphia : U of Pennsylvania P, 1992.
Farrell, Michèle Longino.
Performing Motherhood: the Sévigné Correspondence. Hanover, NH : University Press of New England, 1991.
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Gaines, James.
Social Structures in Molière's Theatre. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 1984.
Gibson, Wendy. Women in Seventeenth-Century France. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
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Goldsmith, Elizabeth C., ed.. Writing the Female Voice: Essays on Epistolary Literature. Boston : Northeastern UP, 1989.
Goldsmith, Elizabeth C..
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Goodkin, Richard E. Birth Marks: The Tragedy of Primogeniture in Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, and Jean Racine. New Cultural Studies. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2000.
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Gossman, Lionel.
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Guicharnaud, Jacques.
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Herrmann, Claudine.
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Hunt, Lynn Avery.
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Jensen, Katherine Anne. Writing Love. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1995.
Kamuf, Peggy.
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Kinnear, Mary. Daughters of Time: Women in the Western Tradition. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1982.
Landes, Joan B.
Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1988.
Lougee, Carolyn C.. Le Paradis des femmes: Women, Salons, and Social Stratification in Seventeenth-Century France. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976.
Orléans, Charlotte-Elisabeth, duchesse d'. A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King: Letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz, Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orléans, 1652-1722. Trans. Elborg Forster. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984.
Rousset, Jean. Narcisse romancier: essai sur la première personne dans le roman. Paris: J. Corti, 1973.
Saint-Amand, Pierre. The Libertine's Progress: Seduction in the Eighteenth-Century French Novel. Hanover: UP of New England, 1994.
Starobinski, Jean.
L'Oeil vivant, essai. Paris: Gallimard, 1961.
Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977.
Went-Daoust, Yvette Yvonne Marie.
Isabelle de Charrière (Belle de Zuylen): de la correspondance au roman épistolaire. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995.