FREN 450 - Money and the Marketplace in the 19th Century

French culture and society witnessed vast changes in both traditional structures and values during the 19th century, due to the influence of the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism. This course offers a survey of 19th century French literature (novels, play, short stories, and poetry) linked to the theme of the course, money and the marketplace. We examine the different roles and uses of money in the literary texts of the course, including works by Balzac, Flaubert, Hugo, and Zola, and we identify some of the many 19th-century characters connected with different aspects of money: the banker, the notary, the lender, the speculator, the industrialist, the inheritor, the bankrupt, the criminal, the gambler, the artist, the young girl with/without dowry, the poor, etc. We try to understand in what respects literature itself had become an object for purchase linked to the marketplace, and, finally, we explore the question of whether or not there exists a relationship between money and the key 19th-century literary movements and styles (Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism). Taught in French. Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)