French 370BA - Banned Books

This seminar will address questions of literary censorship in France in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We will read literary texts banned at various moments in history, situate the moments of both their publication and censoring in a historical and literary historical context, and attempt to answer the following fundamental questions: who bans what, when and why? We will examine the explicitly political, religious, and/or sexual thematic content of the texts. We will try to establish distinctions between more textual taboos and those which would appear to be universal. We will view banned films as well.

Prereq: 12 credits including two courses at the advanced level, or permission of department chair and instructor.