Coming of Age in 18th-Cent Lit

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

What does it mean to come of age in eighteenth-century France? How does this rite of passage change in the course of the century? What is the role of rites, initiations, and education for the eighteenth-century French subject? Is it different for women and for men? What role might love, seduction, or even esthetic experience play in the process? In this interdisciplinary course students will analyze these themes in literature and art, asking what it means to move into young adulthood in Ancien Régime France. Through readings of fictional memoirs, travel journals, tales of seduction, and the (true) dossier of an eighteenth-century feral child, students will examine the role played by language, education, and love in coming of age, while asking questions about the nature of exclusion, privilege, and marginality. Students will gain a greater understanding of coming of age as it functions in literature from other centuries, as well as a deeper understanding of the complex codes and rules governing eighteenth-century French life. Readings include texts by Prévost, Graffigny, Crébillon fils, Bastide, and two films. This course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the French major.