Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment

3 points · University catalogue

Taking modern definitions and critiques of Enlightenment as its starting point, this course will look at how the Enlightenment defined itself as a philosophical, cultural and literary movement, practiced self-criticism from within, and responded to dissension and critique from without. Authors will include Adorno, Horkheimer, Foucault and Israel for the modern critical context, and Voltaire, Diderot, Buffon, Rousseau, Sade and Kant for the eighteenth century material. The course will be given in French, but non-majors may write papers in English. This course fulfills the French Major requirement for a course on literature before 1800.