The French at Work: Unemployment and Precarious Jobs

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The enviable “French work week,” long lunch-breaks, the numerous holidays and paid vacations come readily to mind when we think about French policies and attitudes towards work. In this course, we will focus, however, on crucial contemporary issues: unemployment, mental health and corporate culture, and the rise of so-called precarious jobs. Through French literature and film, and with a particular emphasis on representations of gender and racial disparity in certain types of precarious work (nannies, maids, security guards, and nuclear plant workers, among others), we will examine what it takes to work in France today. We will also look at how these questions are discussed in the press, and follow current events and ongoing social movements. Taught in French.