WJ192 Seeing Paris Through Literature Part II

Course Description: The second of three lecture series on the history of Paris using period literature and diaries. 

During our first series in October we read texts extracts in translation from the period Francois I to Louis XIV, learning about the vagaries of ‘precious’ society and the rise of women intellectuals and writers in seventeenth-century Paris. This next of our three-part series covers works from 1715 to the French Revolution and beyond.  Have you ever wondered why the characters in ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ are so malevolent or how eighteenth-century Paris became the centre of intellectual life in Europe?  See how Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s writing inspired the European Romantic movement as well as New World politics.

For literature-lovers peeking behind the scenes of Parisian history.

Instructor: Dr Gretel Furner. Oxford University. PhD on the modern novel, University of the Saarland, Germany. Assoc. Professor of German, George Washington University.  Instructor, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Since 2003 instructor at WICE in French Literature and History, the Migrant Soul series and Creative Writing.