FRENCH 321 A: Women of Ill Repute: Prostitution in 19th Century France
Women of loose morals in French fiction from the Revolution to the end of the nineteenth century. This course will trace the figure of the prostitute-from the innocuous fallen woman with a heart of gold to the threatening incarnationof feminine perversity-in literary texts and in the paintings of prominent artists of the period. Readings in contemporary treatises on hygiene, public policy, and the legal status of prostitutes will situate the theme in the socio-cultural context of the time. Fiction by Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, Baudelaire, Maupassant, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Zola. Paintings by Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec. . Prerequisite: Two 200-level units, one of which must be 210 (if taken Fall 2004 or later), or 211 or above
A spectrum of novels, short stories, poems, and plays will allow us to ask how different genres represent prostitution. We will examine and question the evolution of society’s responses to the dangers presented by women of loose morals. How do eighteenth century notions of “libertinage” differ from post-revolutionary morals in the nineteenth century? Why do romantic writers like Hugo or Dumas understand fallen women so differently from Maupassant, not to mention Zola? How are we to understand the evolving representations of the prostitute: from the innocuous fallen woman with a heart of gold to the threatening incarnation of feminine perversity? In order to answer these questions, we will focus on the cultural context of these fictional representations. In particular, we will read some telling samples of contemporary writings on hygiene, public policy and the legal status of prostitutes. We will study the shift in these writings from early rational strategies of regulation and containment, to later later discouses focusing on criminality and pathology.
We will also analyze the underlying conscious and unconscious factors that provoke the combination of fascination and repulsion that prostitutes elicit from artists, scientists, readers, and viewers alike. In this light, we will examine how scandal blurs the boundaries that separate and define traditional notions of subjectivity, agency and guilt. Courtisane, demi-mondaine, femme de petite vertu, femme entretenue, fille en numéro, fille publique, soumise en maison, raccrocheuse des boulevards -- what is the nature of the scandal that surrounds the prostitute who hides under all these names? What other perils does she point to or conceal? What are the effects of these scandals on the transgressor herself? On the author? On the reader or viewer? Our search for answers will lead us to analyze the following topics (among others):
1. the dislocation of the family and the loss of paternal authority
2. preoccupation with disease and degeneration
3. the prostitute as threat to the proper functioning of society
4. the prostitute as emblem of political instability
5. notions of male and female roles and spheres of influence: issues of power, knowledge and the gaze in public and private relationships
6. the status of the male and female author in the literary marketplace: is writing and publishing conceived by these authors as an extension of a paternal or maternal power? a social mission? or the prostitution of one’s soul?
Texts: Fiction
Balzac Splendeurs et misères des
courtisanes (extraits)
Barbey d’Aurevilly “La Vengeance d’une femme”
Baudelaire La Fanfarlo, selected poems
Dumas fils La Dame aux camélias
Hugo Marion Delorme
Maupassant “Boule de suif”, “Le lit 21”
Sand Isidora
Zola Nana
Non fiction
Parent
Duchatelet De la prostitution dans la ville de Paris (extraits)
Lombroso et Ferrero La Femme criminelle et la prostituée (extraits)
Code civil (extraits)
Two papers and an oral presentation.