The Program in European Cultural Studies is pleased to announce its Fall 2020 course listings. ECS courses are open to all undergraduates, with no prerequisites. Some courses cross-listed in ECS may have prerequisites, or enrollment restrictions.
For full course descriptions, visit: https://ecs.princeton.edu/courses/
ECS 326 / FRE 326 (LA)
VERSAILLES: COURT AND CULTURE FROM LOUIS XIV TO MARIE-ANTOINETTE
Volker Schröder (French and Italian)
Three hundred and sixty years ago, the young Louis XIV, King of France, transformed his father’s hunting lodge at Versailles into the site par excellence of absolute monarchy and court society. In this course we will study the making and meaning of the palace and its gardens, and analyze some of the manifold cultural artifacts associated with them.
GER 306 / ECS 357 (EC)
GERMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY: WALTER BENJAMIN’S THEORY OF MODERNITY
Michael Jennings (German)
Walter Benjamin, over the course of his career, developed a comprehensive theory of urban capitalist modernity. This course will trace the development of this theory from the mid-1920’s through 1940, concentrating on the finished texts that emanated from the great complex of the Arcades Project.
EPS 302 / ECS 302 (HA)
LANDMARKS OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY
Ute Mehnert (Contemporary European Politics and Society)
This course aims at giving a broad and interdisciplinary perspective on some of the very diverse cultural and historical roots of European identity. It examines contemporary debates over contested identity in the light of long historical trajectories in which identities were continually (re)defined.
COM 339 / ECS 351 (LA or SA)
POLITICAL NOVEL AND CINEMA
Maria DiBattista (English; Comparative Literature)
Societal and political themes – such as class struggle, race/race relations, national/cultural identity, the rights of workers, gender and sexuality – are inextricable from the novel, as the form that seeks to encapsulate the experience of life in the modern world.
FRE 335 / COM 365 / ECS 347 (LA)
LAUGHING WITH THE OTHER: HUMOR AND ALTERITY IN FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE MODERN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
André Benhaïm (French and Italian)
From colonization to civil war, Francophone Africa and the Caribbean are little understood beyond such grave issues of urgency and violence. Through the study of novels, graphic novels, films and stand-up, this course explores the place of humor in French literature and culture of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean.
FRE 334 /HUM 334 /ECS 344 (CD or SA)
RACE IN FRANCE
Christy Wampole (French and Italian)
This interdisciplinary course explores the topic of race in France, from the earliest populations to inhabit the land now called France to the multiracial communities that reside there today.
HIS 449 /FRE 449 /ECS 449 (HA)
THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT
David Bell (History)
The French Enlightenment was one of the most intensely creative and significant episodes in the history of Western thought. This course will provide an introduction to its major works. Each class meeting will consist of a two-hour discussion, followed by a 45-minute background lecture for the subsequent week’s readings.
