Fall 2004

FR 390M • CROSSING GENDER/GENRE BORDERS

Course Description

BORDER CROSSINGS: TRANSGRESSING LIMITS OF GENDER AND GENRE IN XIX FRANCE In this course we will examine novels, short stories, prose poetry and travel writings from the perspective of the “laws” and “orders” of class, gender and genre in nineteenth-century France. Reading the works of male and female authors from Romanticism, Realism, Idealism, Naturalism and Decadence, we will focus on differing forms of transgression, rebellion and border crossing within the context of the social, political and aesthetic history of the period. Critical readings from both nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts will be assigned each week.

Grading Policy

The course will be conducted as a seminar, thus each student will be expected to attend each class fully prepared to discuss the assignment. Class participation will count for 20% of the final grade. Each student will give one 20-minute in-class presentation on a subject of his/her choice relating to our readings. A week after the presentation, a brief paper [5-6 pp] based on the presentation will be due. The presentation and paper are each worth 20% of the final grade. The students will have the choice of taking a final exam or writing a final 20-page paper. The final paper and exam are worth 40% of the final grade. Class participation: 20% In-class presentation: 20% Brief paper: 20% Final exam OR Final paper: 40%

Texts

Required Texts: Chateaubriand, Atala Mme de Staël,Corinne Balzac, Le Père Goriot Sand, Indiana Tristan, Les Pérégrinations d’une paria Flaubert, Madame Bovary Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris Maupassant, La Maison Tellier Huysmans, A Rebours Course packet of selected critical readings Recommended: Price, A Concise History of France

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