Studies in French Literature of the Seventeenth Century: Les Modernités du XVIIe siècle

By examining how recent thinkers have used the period to (re)define "classicism," "modernity," "modernism," or the "post-modern" and confronting these interpretations with selected 17th-century texts, we will explore the crucial role the century plays in French cultural, literary and theoretical debates. Readings include Barthes, Bourdieu, Derrida, Foucault and Descartes, Cyrano de Bergerac, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Racine, La Bruyère, and Perrault.