FREN 321 Masque et illusion dans la France d'Ancien Regime

Prerequisite: FREN 207 or FREN 208 or permission of department chair. We will examine the concepts of illusion and the role of the mask in early modern France as an aesthetic of the ephemeral and diverse nature of humankind. Topics of discussion will include the definition of the "Baroque," political and religious propaganda, concepts of spectacle and the spectacular, the fairy tale and sexual ambiguity.