France/Amérique

Catalog description

This advanced undergraduate seminar will study French representations of modern America from the Revolutionary Age through the 20th century, with an eye to what images of the transatlantic Other say about France’s own cultural, political, and literary shifts. From Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1830’s observations on religious freedom and penal institutions in the new democracy to Jean Baudrillard’s 1986 musings on America as the site of the “hyper-real,” French writers have displayed an ambivalent fascination with their “brother nation” across the sea. The 19th century in particular set a template of stereotypes that contrasted the dynamism of capitalist growth and technological invention in American cities with their underside of materialist corruption and cultural lack of sophistication. In addition to reading Voltaire, Tocqueville, and Baudrillard, we will explore the nuanced range of literary representations of the United States through post-revolutionary ruralism (Chateaubriand, René), 19th-century vaudeville theatre (Sardou, L’Oncle Sam), comic journalism (Allais, “Supériorité de la Vie américaine sur la nôtre”), the scientific fantastic (Villiers, Contes cruels), 20th-century experimentalism (Céline, Voyage au bout de la nuit), and travel writing (Duhamel, Scènes de la vie future; Beauvoir, Amérique au jour le jour). Secondary works will include chapters from Extrême-Occident (Mathy), Posthumous America (Hoffmann), Fascination and Misgivings (Portes), The American Enemy (Roger), L’Amérique au tournant (Dubosson et Geinoz), and Frères Ennemis (Cloonan).