Expressions of France: Humor through the Ages

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, described life outside civilization as "nasty, brutish, and short." During the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and seventeenth century, life inside civilization was more or less the same. Laughter offered a comfort, a means of escape, or of critique. From the carnivalesque to satire, the comic tradition tells us much about the hopes, fears, and the mortally serious of all of these periods. In this course, students will discover the richness of the comic tradition and how it manifests itself in all its gravity. Taught in French.