FFS 348 - Modernism and its Discontents

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2023/24a: Fashion’s Empires. Fashion emerged as one of French modernity’s most complex and ideologically charged discourses in the nineteenth century. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we consider the historical and cultural evolution of fashion in France from the end of the Old Regime to the early twentieth century, considering also contemporary questions of sustainability, labor practices, and questions of empire. From the spectacle of Marie Antoinette’s sartorial excesses to contemporary fashion’s repetitions of and challenges to its own history, the course explores the ways in which fashion and its representation in both text and image construct and reflect gender and national identity in modern French society. Studying literary texts alongside historical documents, illustrations, real objects, and works of theory, our analysis reveals fashion’s central and powerful role in French culture. Authors studied may include Balzac, Baudelaire, Zola, and Rachilde, alongside illustrators, journalists, and theorists of fashion. Susan Hiner.

Prerequisite(s): Two units of 200-level work above FFS 212, or the equivalent, or by permission of the department. Open to first-year students and sophomores only by permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS