FLFR3900 - Private Lives and Public Places in Early Modern France

Auburn University

Dr. Giovanna Summerfield

Office: 6064 Haley Center

Phone/Voice Mail 334.844.6842

E-mail: summegi@auburn.edu

Web site: http://www.auburn.edu/~summegi

Course Description:

This course is offered in combination with HIST3610, taught by History Professor Donna Bohanan. Through the original texts of the time and the works of modern critics, this course underscores the cultural circumstances of early modern France and consists of class discussions. Students are expected to do the assigned readings prior to class discussions. Students are also expected to write their own personal notes about the readings which will be collected the day of the discussion. Whereas the notes can be composed in English, the class discussions will be led in French.

Course Objectives:

In this course students will increase their abilities to communicate in French within their professional field and will understand a variety of topics from a different perspective in order to be better prepared for the demands and opportunities of our global society. Students are expected to discuss the historical significance of early modern France 's community-based norms and values, the development of public and private spheres, and the different interpretations of historians, sociologists and theorists. Additionally students will learn how to retrieve and read original documents such as personal correspondence, literary passages and images, and to consider them as valid historical evidence.

Course Requirements:

Due to the nature of the course, attendance is required. After three absences, regardless of the reason for the absence and of academic performance in the class, the student will receive an FA (Failure due to Excessive Absences). Late work will ONLY be accepted if turned in with official medical excuse. NOTE: One tardy or early departure is counted as half an absence. If students foresee regular conflicts with class attendance due to participation in official university sports activities, they must turn in, at the beginning of the term, a copy of the official calendar of events. Students are required to have an intermediate proficiency in French (at least completion of FLFR2010). Students are expected to be well-prepared and engaged in class discussions; they are expected to turn in their personal notes prior to each discussion.

Grades will be determined as follows:

Reading Notes 40%

Discussion Participation 40%

Final Paper or Presentation 20%

A schedule of final presentations will be available when time approaches.

Special Accommodations:

Students who need special accommodations have to make an appointment with the instructor to present the memo received from the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) and to discuss their situation confidentially. If students do not have a memo, they should arrange an appointment with a member of the professional staff in the PSD Office in 1244 Haley Center (844-2096).

Discussion Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Selections from Le Play's Oeuvres (Principes de la paix sociale. Famille)

Week 3: Selections from Louis Terreaux's Culture et pouvoir

Week 4: Selections from d'Aubigné's Tragiques

Week 5: Selections from Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique (L'affaire Calas) and Candide

Week 6: Selections from D'Aulnoy's Contes and Danielle Haase-Dubosc's Ravie et enlevée

Week 7: Selections from Molière's and Beaumarchais's chosen play(s)

Week 8: Selections from Rabelais's Gargantua; Bakhtin et le carnevalesque

Week 9: Fêtes foraines (Yale Website) et révolutionnaires (M. Ozouf's La fête révolutionnaire)

Week 10: Selections from Michel Foucault's Surveiller et Punir

Week 11: Selected texts - Le diable au XVI, XVII et XVIII siècle

Week 12: Ridicule (Film 1996)

Week 13: Musées et collections - l'Encyclopédie (web) et le Louvre

Week 14: Dibdin's Voyage and Denon's Altichiaro

Week 15: Presentations