Art, Revolution, and Society

3 units

This course examines major eighteenth-century aesthetic treatises and literary texts that explore solutions for aesthetic quandaries. Authors include d'Alembert (PREFACE A L'ENCYCLOPEDIE), Rousseau (DISCOURS SUR LES SCIENCES ET LES ARTS, LETTRE A D'ALEMBERT), Diderot (ENTRETIENS SUR Le Fils naturel, LE PARADOXE DU COMEDIEN, LE NEVEU DE RAMEAU), Cazotte (LE DIABLE AMOUREUX), Beaumarchais (LE BARBIER DE SEVILLE, LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO), Staël (DE LA LITTERATURE, CORINNE). These works allow us to study some of the major insights into the aesthetics of music, painting, and the performing arts with an eye to how these aesthetic revolutions expanded the scope and influenced the form of the French language and literary texts. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.