Description :
Through the analysis of works pertaining to various fields, genres, and time periods, this course offers to study the ways in which French writers and artists have represented themselves throughout the centuries. Today, especially due to the omnipresence of social networks, the writing and the representation of the self have found new ways of expression. As such, they invite us to revisit some prominent literary and artistic works from the past and to wonder about potential continuities or discontinuities regarding the methods, the doubts, and the questions that guided their authors throughout the construction of their own image for posterity.
In this class, students will not only analyze and discuss all sorts of documents--paintings, photographs, literary excerpts, selfies, press articles and cartoons, scholarly articles, movies--but they will also reflect, both orally and through written assignments, on their own approach to self-representation. Consequently, active participation to class discussions is a key component of this course.
