51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

This course will examine the relationship between cultural forms (architecture, garden design, art, music, opera, ballet, literature, etc.) and power at the court of Louis XIV.  We will focus our attentions on primary texts and cultural artifacts from the period while examining modern perspectives (including film) on the Golden Age of French Classicism at Versailles. We will also examine the counterculture that questioned the royal cultural machine in order to place the monolithic century of Louis XIV in a new perspective.  Our study of seventeenth-century France will draw us into important contemporary debates concerning the relationship between art and power as well as dissent and public action. Conducted in French. Advanced level.