FFS 242 - Studies in Genre I

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2020/21a: Sex, Gender, and Identity in Modern France. French thought and literature boast a long tradition of confronting, challenging, and transgressing gender norms and sexual mores. This course explores various constructions of gender and sexuality in France since the late 19th century and the way that writers and filmmakers reveal, critique, and subvert them. Through a close analysis of texts, films, and cultural artifacts, alongside a number of important feminist critical and theoretical works, we study the way that gender intersects with sex, sexuality, race, and class, and consider how these intersections complicate the notion of the “universal subject.” Authors may include Rachilde, Hélène Cixous, Monique Wittig, Marguerite Duras, Leïla Slimani, Paul B. Preciado. Anne Brancky.

Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS