Mar 28, 2024  
Catalogue 2019-2020 
    
Catalogue 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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FFS 355 - Cross-Currents in French Culture

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2019/20b: Twentieth-Century Avant-Gardes. From the Belle Époque to May ‘68, France was an epicenter of cultural avant-gardism on an international scale, where visitors, émigrés, and expatriates brought fresh perspectives and expectations, fueling artistic experimentation. Innovative and iconoclastic artistic practices in art, literature, and music, as well as in film, fashion, and architecture, elevated new movements and icons as Paris reinvented itself and France modernized. What defines avant-gardism and what was its contribution in bringing progress to a period of social upheaval scarred by war? Were its challenges to political and spiritual authority instrumental in advancing women’s rights and freedom from colonial rule? The course seeks answers in the theories and practices of avant-garde movements, including surrealism, negritude, and existentialism. It examines the works of prominent literary figures, artists, and philosophers, and explores the cultural milieux, from Montparnasse to Montmartre, where avant-gardes emerged. The course also considers the economic and ideological obstacles to literary and artistic success that beset emergent voices soon overlooked or forgotten in the City of Light, lost in the ferment of the Entre Deux Guerres and the Trente Glorieuses. A range of short texts are read. Authors of longer works may include Proust, Colette, Césaire, Beauvoir, Camus, Queneau, and Wittig. Mark Andrews.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS



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