Studies in the 17Th Century (430-0-20)

Topic

The Powers of Literature: From Sovereignty to Gove

Instructors

Matthieu Dupas
847/491-2772
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-139

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-420: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Over the past two decades, "sovereignty" has tended to give way to "governmentality" (Michel Foucault) as a category for analyzing power in seventeenth-century French literature - not only the representation of power in texts, but also the ways in which those texts often effect power. In this course, we will attempt to follow this shift by focusing on the representation of love, which sometimes opposes power, sometimes metaphorizes it, in texts written by Corneille, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Molière, but also La Fayette and Scudéry.

Class Notes

All texts will be available through Canvas.