French 264 - ENCOUNTRNG OTHERS/ANCIEN REGIM

How was France's cultural and political identity shaped by its encounters with the Other as it expanded trade and its conquest of foreign political and cultural powers such as the Ottoman empire and the newly discovered nations of the Americas, Africa and Tahiti? How did the concept of the foreigner evolve as confrontations with other nations, other religions, other ethnicities put into question France's conception of its own society and culture? We examine a range of texts (treatises, pamphlets, novels, theatre, ballet heroique) in which "otherness" and foreignness is explored. Readings from Montaigne, Moliere, Montesquieu, Graffigny, Voltaire, Diderot, Gouges, Duras and Condorcet. Prerequisite: FRN 230 or permission of the instructor.