Department of French

Paper Fr 8

Living, loving and dying in Renaissance France

This paper will be offered at Part II from 2012/2013.

Reading list

How to live well, the meaning of one's death and dying, and the value of love: these are key, interrelated topics in Renaissance ethics, philosophy and theology, as well as in literary texts and the visual arts. By studying the three topics both independently and as they converge, we can trace ways in which new thinking about subjectivity and culture took place and was tested. Over the course of the long sixteenth century (i.e. late fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries) thinkers and writers in all fields, together with those working in the visual and plastic arts, moved from the early optimism of Humanism into crisis and doubt during the traumatic decades of civil and religious wars which their ethical, philosophical, political and rhetorical ideals failed to prevent. But in response to crisis, failure and doubt, new forms and ideas emerged.

The span of this paper is the long century, which enables study of the history of ideas and ideals and their discursive and literary form, and also, deeper analysis of key moments and texts or clusters of texts, both verbal and visual. In all their rich complexities and changing priorities, reflections on these three topics are symptomatic of the increasing turbulence of the time, and offer a focus through which we can build an analysis of the relationship between text and context: between discourses, ideals and textual and aesthetic models and the cultural, political and theological conflicts in which they were produced.

These are moreover topics which invite exploration in terms of such themes as the relationship between past, present and future; textual and cultural ghosts; mythology; exemplarity; sacrifice and martyrdom; the place of belief in culture; secularization; identity; experience; the body. The changing conceptual and cultural significance of all these themes as articulated in relation to our three topics also acts as a barometer of changes to the ways in which those living at the times saw, wanted to see, or could no longer see, themselves.

Teaching methods

Teaching will take the form of a combination of 20 hours of lectures and seminars over three terms, in tandem with ten supervisions. Assessment will be by examination, either a 3-hour written paper or an optional dissertation. The examination paper will consist of two questions: an essay, in which candidates can range widely, focus on a cluster of texts, or concentrate on the writings of authors such as Rabelais, Ronsard or Montaigne; and a comparative commentary. In this section of the paper candidates can either work on pairs of texts indicated by examiners or choose their own pairing, and both visual and verbal texts will be set for analysis.

Learning outcomes

• Detailed knowledge of major texts of French literary and/or intellectual history.
• Ability to place texts in historical and intellectual context.
• Ability to identify key interpretive issues raised by texts.
• Ability to follow abstract arguments and to make sense of unfamiliar ideas and patterns of thought.
• Grasp of the key historical and intellectual developments of the period, and ability to interpret texts with reference to these.
• Ability to tie textual interpretation to close linguistic observation.
• Ability to compare and contrast texts accurately and pertinently.
• Ability to recognize and evaluate different approaches to texts, intellectual movements, schools of thought.

Examination

Please see the specimen exam paper for an example of the current format of the paper.

Further information

Please contact Professor Philip Ford pjf2@cam.ac.uk to discuss the paper further.