Studies in the 17th Century

Catalog description

Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. One possible topic is "The Royal Machine: Louis XIV and the Versailles Era." We will examine certain key texts of what is known as the Golden Age of French literature in tandem with a number of recent theoretical texts that could be described as historical. Our goal will be to explore the basis of "the new historicism," a term that is designed to cover a variety of critical systems that try to account for the historical specificity and referentiality of literary texts. Please see department's website for current course description: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/french/pc