FREN 80.03 Men Behaving Badly: The Offending Sex in Literature and Music
Infamous men are often portrayed in works of art and literature as predatory and power hungry narcissists. From Don Juan’s sexual predation, to Valmont’s narcissism, the evils of men are, at once, the most reviled and the most seductive to artists and audiences alike. This course will explore the historical progression of “bad-boy” behavior through the literary and musical works of Berlioz, Molière, Laclos and others. We will study miscreants who single-mindedly pursue their destructive goals. By examining how literature and music represent misogyny, we will pay particular attention to what constitutes “bad” behavior, to what initiates such behavior, and to the moral and social implications of such behavior. At the same time, we will discuss how the “good” aesthetics of “bad” (the way in which aesthetic beauty) is made from the raw materials of social and psychological malefaction. These broader questions will help frame our thematic investigation of misbehavior, with discussions on vices such as rakishness, hubris, greed and narcissism. We will focus on how literary and musical genres portray these vices, and then take note of how vices attain an ambiguous meaning within the social and moral systems of these works.
Instructor
See department website
Prerequisite
A course in the French 10 sequence or permission of the instructor