FREN 049. Le roman psychologique du 19è siècle


The French novel witnessed a series of formal innovations throughout the nineteenth century that went hand in hand with developments in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. In the first half of the century, novelists like Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac revolutionized the novel in ways that allowed for new levels of psychological depth, placing an emphasis on inner monologues, the sometimes-conflicting impulses motivating their characters, and detailed observations of the minutiae of everyday behavior. Building off these aesthetic innovations, novelists of the second half of the century pushed these psychological studies still further, turning directly to (and sometimes against) the work of psychiatrists, neurologists, and criminologists for inspiration-explicit and implicit references to the theories of Charcot, Lombroso, and Krafft-Ebing abound in the pages of the Realist, Naturalist, and Decadent authors constituting the corpus of this class. The following course will explore the dialogue that takes place between literature and psychology throughout the nineteenth century, tracking the novel's shift from broad depictions of madness to more nuanced psychiatric diagnoses and even sympathetic depictions of various psychological states that speak to contemporary discussions around neurodiversity. Authors include: Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Rachilde (in addition to excerpts from primary sources of nineteenth-century psychology). 

Taught in French.
Prerequisite: Fr 15 or with instructor permission.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Spring 2023. Robison.
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literatures: French and Francophone Studies  
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/french-francophone-studies


Access the class schedule to search for sections.




Print-Friendly Page (opens a new window)