Political & Social Thought in France (380-0-20)
Topic
How to Change the World
Instructors
Doris L Garraway
847/491-8255
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-134
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
How to Change the World? Making Revolution in France and its Colonies
How did France become a secular republic whereas it began as a divine-right monarchy? What did it take to dismantle centuries of tradition, social hierarchy, and ways of thinking and speaking, almost overnight? In this course, we examine the role of ideas, culture, and language in the revolutionary struggles that dramatically reshaped France and the Francophone world at the end of the eighteenth century. The French Revolution drew on a powerful new understanding of "man" in order to reinvent or throw out entirely age-old notions of political authority, religion, the nation, the family, and the constitution. Essential to the movement's contagious force and utopianism were the writings, speeches, symbols, songs, and spectacles that made it a cultural revolution as much as a political one rooted in violence. Beginning with an exploration of influential Enlightenment ideas about human freedom and equality, we survey the revolution's most significant cultural inventions and transformations— from the emergence of a free press to the reconstitution of calendar time— with an aim toward examining their political and artistic aims. Attending to the paradoxes of revolutionary ideas and practices, we compare the revolution's claims in France with those of the anti-slavery Haitian Revolution, which in many ways exceeded the radicalism of the Parisian movement. Throughout the course, we ask in what sense culture is political, what is the relationship between culture, art, and violence, and what are the lessons of the French and Haitian Revolutions for our world today. Works by Rousseau, Sieyès, Marat, De Lisle, Robespierre, Maurin De Pompigny, Dessalines, and others. Taught in French, but readings include essays in English.
Teaching Method
Short lectures, student participation, student presentations, writing assignments.
Evaluation Method
Reading requirement: Approximately 100 pages per week, including primary sources in French and secondary sources in French and/or English.
Class Materials (Required)
Primary Readings (only the first three items flagged with an asterisk should be purchased):
Rousseau, Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes. 1755. Paris: Gallimard folio*
Du contrat social (extraits). [1762] Ed. Robert Derathé. Extraits. Paris: Gallimard Folio, 1993.*
Sièyes, L'Abbé. Qu'est-ce que le tiers État? [1789]. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.*
Assemblée nationale. "Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen." http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/Droit-francais/Constitution/Declaration-des-Droits-de-l-Homme-et-du-Citoyen-de-1789
Marat, Jean-Paul, L'Ami du peuple, Oeuvres de J.P. Marat. Paris: Décembre-Alonnier, 1869.
Extraits. Hébert, Jacques-René . Le Père Duchesne, 1790-94. Ed. Albert Soboul. Paris: EDHIS, 1969.
Extraits Rouget de Lisle, "La Marseillaise," hymne national français, 1792
Philippe Fabre D'Eglantine, Rapport à la Convention [sur le calendrier révolutionnaire]. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1793
Jacques-Louis David, "Plan de la fête à l'Étre Suprême," 1794
Robespierre, Discours choisis. Autour de Robespierre. Ed. Albert Mathiez. Génève: Éditions Famot, 1976
Maurin de Pompigny, L'Époux républicain: Drame patriotique en prose. A Paris : De l'Imprimerie de Cailleau, rue Gallande, no. 50, 1794 (Posted online on Canvas)
[Jean-Jacques Dessalines], "Liberté ou la mort" Port-au-Princ:, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1805 Constitution impériale d'Hayti. 1805. In Janvier, Constitutions d'Haïti.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Prerequisite: Students must have completed FRENCH 271-0, FRENCH 272-0, or FRENCH 273-0. Other students may register with instructor permission.