FREN4434 · Romance Languages and Literatures

Styles of Literature and Science in France

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Course is conducted in French and Fulfills one of the 4000 level requirements for French majors or minors. Is literature a "science"? Can science be "literature"? This class reads literary, scientific, and philosophical texts from the Enlightenment and nineteenth century from the lens of both history of science and literature. Our focus will be France, though we will also look at scientific voyages beyond Europe. Other than published "works," we will engage with the rich material culture of drafts, notebooks, botanical specimens, illustrations, and research of all kinds. Sources include the FrenchEncyclopedie, the botanical practice and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as well as the travel diaries and writings of Alexander von Humboldt and Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. We will also examine the connections between the work of natural scientists including Georges Cuvier and Claude Bernard and novelists like Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola. Our aim will be to deepen our understanding of the complex interrelations of practice and thought among literature, philosophy, and the sciences.