Topics in French Literature: The Voyage of Self-Discovery

3 units

In our modern interconnected society, it is not always easy for young people to define who they really are or to discover and fulfill their potential, but it is encouraged and facilitated through education, travels, social contacts, and even technology. But it was not always so. In earlier times, individuals were often constrained by the prevalent social and moral values of their worlds and had a much harder time discovering their persona or fulfilling their needs and aspirations. This seminar explores the issues of self-discovery, initiation, and self-realization in the modern novel, including Balzac's Eugenie Grandet, Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Mauriac's Therese Desqueyroux, and Phillippe Grambert's Un Secret.