From Whispers to Worldviews: Gossip and the Social Network in Nineteenth-Century France

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The nineteenth century saw the rise of print media and professional institutions. Old-fashioned whisper networks came to be viewed suspiciously as a dangerous, “feminine” pastime for those without lives of their own. Yet the enduring popularity of gossip—in society columns, romans-à-clef, communal laundry rooms, and political caricatures—meant that informal social networks thrived, fueled by a heightened interest in the private lives of famous people. The learning goals of this class extend beyond those of textual analysis and the researched argument to media literacy. Following several scandals across a variety of sources, we will study how information was transmitted via different genres, spaces, and voices in nineteenth-century France, looking at a range of texts from broadsheets to Offenbach operettas. While reinforcing social mores, gossip also provided a means of resistance to the status quo, a way for the marginalized to reframe official narratives and point to the humanity shared across classes and identities. Taught in French.