Unit name | The Censor's Scissors, 1750-1830 |
---|---|
Unit code | FREN30112 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Clare Siviter |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of French |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The freedom of expression was a key belief of the Enlightenment but the transition from monarchy to Revolution was a brutal one where speaking your mind could also cost you your life. This Unit examines the constraints to which authors were subjected during the second half of the eighteenth century in France by focusing on five main forms of texts: libertine literature; the press; theatre; the classification of knowledge; the art of the essay. We will consider how censorship shaped literature; how authors, publishers, and booksellers circumvented governmental authority, including the transnational circulation of texts across Europe; how censorship changed with the advent of the Revolution. Finally, we will ask how these censored texts, from the Encyclopédie to pornography, continue to influence our relationship to ‘dangerous works’ even in the twenty-first century.
Each literary form will focus on one main text to be read alongside a selection of further contemporary documents in seminars which will be made available via Blackboard.
The Unit aims to:
On successful completion of the init, students will be able to::
1 x weekly lecture
1 x weekly seminar per week
1 x 4000 word essay (75%) assessing ILOs 1-6
1 x 1500 word censorship report (25%) assessing ILOs 4, 5 and 7
Diderot, Denis, ed., Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (1751) – extracts
Mirabeau, Ma Conversion, par M. D.R. C. D. M. F. (1783)
Extracts from the Counter-Revolutionary Press, 1792–1800
Staël, Germain de, De l’Allemagne (1810/1814)
Jouy, Étienne de, Bélisaire, tragédie (1818/1825)