Mar 28, 2024  
2017-2018 Academic Catalogue 
    
2017-2018 Academic Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOGUE]

FRE 331 - Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century French Literature (1)

France’s fiercely secular understanding of citizenship can be traced back to the Enlightenment period which culminated in the violent revolution of 1789. French philosophes such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and Montesquieu, united in their belief in the supreme power of human reason, waged fierce opposition to the social and political constraints of religious authority that undergirded the Old Regime and promoted an international republic of letters founded on freedom of expression and human rights. This course focuses on works by the philosophes with attention to the limits of French Enlightenment thinking with respect to differences of race and gender. Alternative voices of important historical actors such as Olympe de Gouges, a feminist abolitionist, and Toussaint l’Ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, will also be considered. Prerequisite: FRE 301 . FRE 311  or FRE 312  is strongly recommended. Offered every third year.
(Humanities)