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FREN 4120
Prof. Masano Yamashita
Spring 2025
MWF: 12:20pm - 1:10pm

We’ll be reading stories about female rage, nuns gone wild, torrid love affairs and bad marriages. Some stories are quieter but nonetheless absorbing: we’ll learn about the everyday experiences of French servants, housewives, and rebellious daughters, and their efforts to carve out a life defined in their own terms. This course also introduces students to French political culture. We’ll take a deep dive into the French Revolutionary project of fighting for liberty, equality and fraternity, which led to terrifying and bold choices, including the beheading of the king in the name of political justice. In an epoch which saw the flourishing of women’s marches and the popularity of literary-legal genres such as political pornography, letter-writing, petitions and grievances, we’ll explore how for the French the personal has always been inseparable from the political. The course will combine film analysis with readings from French women writers and shorter theoretical essays read in English. The course will be conducted in French, with reading materials given in the French original and in English translation whenever available.

Questions? Contact masano.yamashita@colorado.edu