Les Deux Magots is a Parisian café in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood that was famous as a hangout for intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. (Image courtesy of Ingo Ronner on Flickr.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Bruno Perreau
MIT Course Number
21G.068J / WGS.234J
As Taught In
Spring 2012
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Description
In the decades following the Second World War, a cluster of extraordinary French thinkers were widely translated and read in American universities. Their works were soon labeled as "French Theory." Why would sharing the same nationality make authors such as Lacan, Cixous, Derrida, Foucault or Debord, ambassadors of a specifically "French" theory? The course will explore the maze of transatlantic intellectual debates since 1945 and the heyday of French existentialism. We will study the debates on communism, decolonization, neo‐liberalism, gender, youth culture and mass media. This course is taught in English.