- French 311 - Fall 97
La recherche du bonheur
au dix huitième siècle
The Pursuit of Happiness
in France in the Age of Enlightenment
Idylle Champêtre by
Boucher
(Avignon Art Museum)
Cours Description
"Oh, le bon temps
que ce siècle de fer!" =Voltaire
(Le Mondain)
-
- Although the eighteenth century ended in turmoil,
artists as well as philosophers and writers firmly believed that they had
discovered the secrets of collective happiness. For the playwright Marivaux
and the painters Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard, love and sensuality constituted
the main avenues to happiness and in their works they represented a kaleidoscope
of psychologies and passions.
- For Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,
happiness was to be found in a paradisiac dream of a new golden age in
which perfect harmony with nature would be achieved (Les rèveries
d'un promeneur solitaire, Paul et Viginie). For Diderot, any belief
in God was an obstacle to happiness, but like Montesquieu and the painter
Greuze, he recommended practicing moral virtue to achieve social harmony
(Pensées philosophiques, Les Lettres persanes). For Voltaire
happiness depended on the creation of a just and tolerant society in which
free men and women lived in peace (Les Lettres philosophiques, Candide).
As Chardin's paintings also illustrated, prosperity based on commerce would
guarantee that each citizen could live comfortably and even luxuriously.
For Beaumarchais, the secret of happiness lay essentially in social justice
(Le mariage de Figaro). In this course we will complement the study
of literary and philosophical texts with the examination of paintings of
the time. We will also view some cinematic attempts at representing eighteenth-century
society (Milos Forman's Valmont, Truffaut's L'enfant sauvage,
Tavernier's Que la fête commence!, Richard Heffron's La
Révolution: les années lumières).
- Prereq. French 215 and one of 219, 225, or 230;
2 meetings (75 minutes) or 1 meeting (21/2 hours); 4 credits
Syllabus and Students' Presentations
Syllabus and Course Managment
Links to other XVIII century sites