Prerequisite: FREN 207 or 208 or permission of department chair. (Second semester—as needed/ 3 credits)
In this course, students will examine the concepts of illusion and the role of the mask in 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century France as an aesthetic of the ephemeral and diverse nature of humankind. Topics of discussion will include the definition of the “Baroque,” political and religious propaganda, concepts of spectacle and the spectacular, the fairy tale and sexual ambiguity.