The French and Their Discontents: Legacies of Revolution

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

From the sans-culottes of the French Revolution to the gilets jaunes (2018-....) and beyond, this course will examine how the people of France have voiced their dissatisfaction with the status quo and with their leaders, and elicited lasting political and social changes. Drawing from historical sources, films, fiction, and art, we will track and analyze recurring themes, images, and representations of French unrest and resistance to societies of control from 1789 to the present. We will also consider how gender, race, class, and socio-economic status intersect with the desire to see change and hinder or make possible the ability to obtain it. We will investigate the legacies of and challenges to French republican values (valeurs républicaines) and the debates around universalism in order to question what it means to be French today. Taught in French.