French Culture and Civilization: La pensée française au XXe siècle

We will address XXth century French thinkers coming from philosophy, aesthetics, semiotics, sociology, and feminism. Readings include works by Henri Bergson, Simone Weil, Luc Ferry and Alain Badiou; Paul Valéry, Roger Caillois, and Paul Ricoeur, Emile Durkheim, Raymond Aron, and Pierre Bourdieu; Luce Irigaray and Michèle Le Doeuff. Two oral presentations and one final paper.