FREN 348 - Writing Vulnerability in Contemporary French Literature

“Writing Vulnerability in Contemporary French Literature”/”Écritures de la vulnérabilité dans la littérature contemporaine de langue française.” This course explores vulnerability as both a universal human condition and a socially differentiated experience through works of contemporary French-language literature. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Emmanuel Levinas, Paul Ricoeur, and Judith Butler, among others, we will examine how vulnerability intersects with pain, suffering, trauma, and precarity, as well as with resistance and resilience. Through close readings of works by several authors, including Hervé Guibert, Annie Ernaux, Abdellah Taïa, and Kim Thúy, students will analyze the figures that vulnerability takes in narratives of shame, illness, migration, and sexuality. The course thus invites students to reflect on the aesthetic, ethical, and political stakes of these writings: which vulnerabilities are recognized, how are they represented, and how might they be mobilized for political ends? Discussion in French.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): FREN 212 or equivalent
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts).