Course Description
This course invites students to deconstruct the construction of love and sexuality by exploring French culture, from its historical roots to its influence on American society. Key questions include: How have historical and cultural practices shaped modern dating norms? How does rape culture persist, and how can we challenge it? How are nonconforming genders, polyamory, and asexuality recognized and represented? Through the study of literary texts (Scudéry, Villedieu, Racine), paintings, films (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), and theoretical works (bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Girard), this seminar fosters creativity and critical debate. Students will engage with polls, personal reflections, and critical analysis to craft their own emotional maps, accompanied by a guide to explore how their experiences at Rutgers may—or may not—be influenced by their discoveries about French dating culture.
Objectives of the Class
- To grasp concepts related to sociocultural norms and examine love through the lenses of ethnicity, multiculturalism, religion, gender roles, biological constraints and economical values
- To understand and evaluate historical and social change of notions and literary movements such as “passion,” “romance,” “galanterie,” “seduction”, “libertinage”
To decipher how love stereotypes and prejudices are socially constructed - To analyze the origins of social institutions and social structures such as “marriage,” “couple,” “family,” and their effects on human action and behavior
- To recognize how racial and gender inequalities shaped Western pop culture (media, songs, painting)
- De-center and decanonize White French Culture and identify other expressions of feelings
Grading Breakdown
1-Participation: 30% (includes arriving on time having completed all of the required reading, raising pertinent questions, answering polls, listening carefully to others and engaging with their thoughts, offering your responses and opinions). Quality rather than quantity of participation matters most.
2-Two mini-papers of 1 page each (Double Space, Times New Roman): 20%
3-One students’ presentation on a topic we agree on: 20%
4-A Final Group Project: The art of Dating at Rutgers. Draw your map, explain your rules and provide a 3 page guide to help navigate your feelings: 30%
Course Material
No textbook is required for the class. All required readings will be uploaded on Canvas.