FFS 232 - The Modern Age

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2025/26a: Representing Resistance and Protest. France’s long legacy of political resistance has, for many, rendered acts of a dissent an essential feature of its national culture. In the past century, the proliferation of mass media has only heightened this impression. At the same time, some have deemed uprisings such as the May 1968 protests to be more culturally significant than politically effective. Violent suppression and deadly police violence have, likewise, drawn into question the democratic value of dissent. Focusing on narratives of uprising and resistance in France from the late nineteenth century to the present, in this course we ask how protests have impacted recent French culture, assess the historical scope of the transformations they engender, and examine the often fraught relationship between politics and aesthetics. Our inquiry centers around literary, cinematic, and artistic representations of five historical examples: La Commune (Spring 1871); La Résistance (1940-44); the massacre of Algerian protestors in Paris (October 1961); the student and worker protests of May 1968; and Nuit debout (Spring 2016). Works studied include films, narrative prose, poems, and visual artworks as well as varied ephemera documenting the events themselves (graffiti, pamphlets, posters, street photography). Jackson Smith (a); Susan Hiner (b).

Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS