FRE 4405 - French Dark Years

Credits: 4
Through literature, art, cultural artifacts and film, this course will examine the Nazi occupation from 1940-44. This approach will allow students to realize how the most consequential episode in French history left an indelible mark on the French national psyche and continues, still, to haunt the country’s collective memory. This course proposes to explore the lasting legacy of those “Dark Years.” Students will investigate how the complex (and traumatic) history of the Occupation has impacted French culture during the last half of the twentieth century. Discussions will deal with documents—novels and films, primarily—that attest to what many historians refer to as modern France’s national “obsession” with the past and a need to rewrite history in creating myths. Course conducted in French.
Prerequisites/Co-requisites Any French 2500 class or higher, or by placement
McDaniel Plan: International Western, Social, Culteral, and Historical Understanding, Textual Analysis