Banlieues, Margins and Peripheries in French Contemporary Literature, Cinema, and Theory

Catalog description

This seminar explores figurations of banlieues and peripheries in contemporary French literature and cinema, and how they are inherently intertwined with a deep renewal of realist aesthetics. We will study the recent tendency to approach margins as metonymic and conflicted geopolitical configurations, articulating issues of gender, class and race. We will examine a constellation of recent films and narratives that can be anticipatory and expressive of the French social discontent in all its complexity, from the banlieues riots to the yellow vest movement. Same as French 427S, with additional graduate level work.