FRE/LIT 362 Women and the Mediterranean: from the 16th to the 19th century Study + Internship in Aix-en-Provence Program Fall 2021 Semester

This course is designed to invite students to question the notion of gender, building on classics of French literature. By studying "great texts" in different forms, including novels, poetry, and theatre, and using images (paintings, engravings, and photographs), this course will question the fabrication of gender (and particularly femininity) through the cultural and aesthetic devices presented in these works. It will articulate the socio-historical context in which they arose, and the individual resent movements of the authors studied. How do these representations continue to shed light on the present?
Using a variety of texts, we will explore the aesthetic and social issues related to femininity and its representations: female stereotypes, the social condition of women, and their relationship to creation and of the world. Daily in-class discussions will allow students to synthesize the different issues raised by the concept before engaging in their own creative writing.