Morgues, Immoralists and Monsieur Lange: The French Third Republic (1870-1940)
Course description:
The French Third Republic (1870-1940) represents one of the most varied yet
paradoxically most characteristic periods in France. Cultural changes were vast as France
turned to an urban industrial economy from a rural, artisanal model. World fairs, wax
museums, morgues and the cinema (the first film was screened in France in 1895)
developed a rapidly growing popular culture that emphasized visual perception.
Colonialism, communism, socialism, anti-Semitism and secularism alternately dominated
French politics as the country evolved into a modern republic even as its citizens were
still trying to define what their republic represented.
How did writers, filmmakers and artists represent such vast changes in their work? This
course examines an important period of French history in concert with its literature, art,
and films in order to attempt a broader understanding of the Third Republic through its
culture. Among the literary movements we will study are naturalism, symbolism, and
surrealism. We will read works that reflect new concepts of the individual as well as
his/her relationship to the world during fin-de siècle, Belle Epoque, First World War, and
Popular Front France. As we interpret French culture across the Third Republic, you will
identify recurrent themes and tensions. Ultimately the aim of the course is to not only
encourage a better understanding of France during the Third Republic, but also give
insight into cultural issues in contemporary France.
Grade Breakdown:
I. Contributions to class discussion and debate: 35%
Whenever you are in class, you must regularly voice your opinions on class
readings, challenge other students and myself to explain unclear positions, as well as ask
questions when appropriate. To facilitate this, 2-3 reading questions will be given for
each week’s texts. You do not have to write out responses, but you should have prepared
some notes for these questions before class. This grade also includes three short reaction
posts (1 paragraph) to the class “bulletin board” on the ecampus website.
II. Papers: 65%
Each paper is designed to improve upon your writing and critical thinking
techniques through the examination of specific areas of the culture of the Third Republic.
Topics for persuasive, scholarly papers will be assigned for the first two shorter papers.
For the last paper, you will generate your own argument. Since we will be reading texts
that demonstrate how other authors devise means for analyzing culture, we will work on
adapting some of these techniques for your papers.
The final paper will also require the use of at least three outside (library) sources
to bolster your argument (we will practice searching for such sources in class). Ideally,
by the end of the course you will have an excellent writing sample to use for applications
to jobs or graduate schools. The papers will go through a cycle of drafting and editing
before the final version is handed in. For the final paper, we will spend additional time
on detailed outlining to ensure a solid framework for your argument.
Paper one (3-4 pages): 15%; Paper two (4-5 pages): 20%; Final paper (10-12 pages): 30%
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Weekly assignments: readings found in course reader unless otherwise noted
RISE OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC: 1871-1898
Week 1
Monday: Introduction: What is it and where did it come from?
End of the Second Empire, Paris Commune and establishment of the Third
Republic
In-class reading of Arthur Rimbaud “Bad Blood” / “Mauvais sang” from A
Season in Hell (1873)
Wednesday: Guy de Maupassant, Butterball/ Boule de suif (1880)
Gordon Wright, France in Modern Times, Chapter 18 “The Monarchist
Republic, 1870-1879”
Week 2
Monday: Wright, chapter 19 “The Opportunist Repubic, 1879-1899
Emile Zola and naturalism: The Human Beast/La Bête humaine (1890)
Wednesday: Emile Zola, cont.
Week 3
Monday: The Dreyfus Affair: 1894-1906
Dreyfus: a Family Affair Michael Burns (excerpts)
Wright, chapter 22, “Society: Structures and Trends, 1870-1914”
Wednesday: Dreyfus discussion, continued
“J’accuse...!” Emile Zola (January 13, 1898)
Paper 1 due
THE MIDDLE REPUBLIC: (1899-1913)
Week 4
Monday: Fin-de-siecle early mass culture: the morgue/wax museums/journalism
Vanessa Schwartz (excerpts) Spectacular Realities:
Early Mass Culture in fin-de-siècle Paris
Wednesday: André Gide, The Immoralist/ L’Immoraliste (1902)
Week 5
Monday: Wright, ch. 23, “The French Mind and Spirit, 1870-1914”
ch. 20, “The Radical Republic, 1899-1914”
Wednesday: Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way/ Du côté du chez Swann (1913) (excerpts)
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CONFLICT AND DECLINE OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC: 1914-1939
Week 6
Monday:
Wright, chapter 29, “Economy and Society in the Postwar Decade, 1919
1931”
Colette, Chéri (1920)
Paper 2 due
Wednesday: Colette cont.
Peer edit of introductions/outlines for third paper in
class.
Week 7
Monday : André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism (1924)
“Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether
verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real process of thought. Thought’s dictation,
free from any control by the reason, independent of any aesthetic or moral preoccupation.”
André Breton (1896-1966), French surrealist. Manifesto of Surrealism (1924; repr. in
Manifestos of Surrealism, 1969).
Wednesday: Luis Buñuel, L’Age d’or (1930). View film on reserve in Powell Media Lab
prior to class.
Final paper brainstorming/ discussion of sources.
Week 8
Monday: Final paper tentative thesis due
The 1930s: Poetic realism and cinematic expression of the Popular Front.
“Popular Front” in The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French
Dudley Andrew, Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture introduction
Wednesday: Le Crime de Monsieurr Lange (1936) Jean Renoir.
View film in Powell Media Lab prior to class meeting.
Week 9
Monday: Dudley Andrew, Mists of Regret Chapter 9, “Jean Renoir: Adaptation,
Institution, Auteur.”
Wednesday: La Bête Humaine (1938) Jean Renoir. View film in Powell Media Lab prior
to class meeting.
Week 10:
Monday: Wright, chapter 31, “Crisis and Collapse, 1936-1940”
Outlines with introductions for final paper due in class; peer editing.
Wednesday: Conclusions, peer editing feedback continued.
Final paper due during finals week
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Bibliography for Required Reading Texts
Andrew, Dudley. Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film.
Princeton, Princeton UP, 1995.
Andrew, Dudley, and Stephen Ungar, Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005.
Breton, André. “Manifesto of Surrealism.” Trans.Helen R. Lane and Richard Seaver.
Manifestos of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969.
Burns, Michael. Dreyfus: A Family Affair.
Colette. Chéri and The Last of Chéri. Trans. Roger Senhouse. 2nd ed. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Gide, André. The Immoralist. Trans. David Watson New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
Maupassant, Guy de. Butterball. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. The Necklace and Other
Tales. New York: Modern Library, 2003.
Proust, Marcel. Swann’s Way. Trans. C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin;
revised by D.J. Enright. New York: Modern Library, 1992.
Reynolds, Sian. “Popular Front.” The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French.
Ed. Peter French. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Rimbaud, Arthur. “Bad Blood” / “Mauvais sang.” Trans. Bertrand Mathieu. A Season in
Hell and Illuminations. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, Ltd., 1991.
Schwartz, Vanessa. Spectacular Realities: Early Mass Culture in fin-de-siècle Paris.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Wright, Gordon. France in Modern Times: From the Enlightenment to the Present.
5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995.
Zola, Emile. La Bete Humaine. Trans. Roger Pearson. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
_____. “J’accuse...!” L’Aurore. January 13, 1898.
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