Transgression: The Sacred and the Profane in 20th Century Paris
Course Description and Learning Goals
This travel seminar examines French thinkers in the early 20th century who engaged literature, philosophy, and religion to explore the passages between the sacred and the profane in a dauntingly secularized world. How do we find the sacred after the death of God? How did these thinkers invoke enchantment, mysticism, the erotic, the transgressive and the "obscene" in their searches for meaning, love, beauty? Students will immerse in varied and provocative responses - a balance of nonfiction & fiction writings - to this dilemma and then explore it in their own analytical and imaginative (fiction) writing as they use Paris as their classroom.
The class is centered on a group of writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus,
Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Bataille, and Simone Weil. One of the defining characteristics
of this group of writers is their place at the margins of French institutions of higher
learning and the French public sphere. Students will be able to see and understand
how these thinkers eschewed positions in French institutions in order to disentangle
their work from the hierachies, politics, and limitations inscribed therein. The course
in Paris will give students the opportunity to bring to life the institutions, communities,
and cultures that cultivated this unique cadre of intellectuals.
Students enrolled in the Transgression: The Sacred and the Profane in 20th Century Paris travel seminar:
1) Will analyze the creative works of twentieth-century thinkers working at the intersection of religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts.
2) Students will gain experiential knowledge of various reactions to French secularism in the twentieth-century and contemporary context.
3) Students will use their engagements with this group of thinkers as inspiration for their own creative work, and to engage imaginative writing as a way of depending conceptual and experiential ideas.
4) Students will gain a first-hand understanding of several aspects of French history and culture, including: French institutions of higher learning; French secularisms; French feminisms; French intellecturals, politics and the public sphere.
For a sample itinerary of the Paris travel seminar, please click here.
Important Information
Prerequisite: Students should have completed EN 110.
Credits: TX200 is a three credit travel seminar.
Program Fee: The anticipated fee for the travel seminar to Paris is $4,500 (subject to fluctuation). This includes accommodations (double occupancy), some group meals, activities and ground transportation, Skidmore faculty on site, and the support of OCSE. The fee does not include personal expenses nor flights to/from Paris. Please see the OCSE travel seminar financial policy page for additional information.
Meals and Housing: The program fee includes program housing in basic dorms or an economy hotel for the duration of the program. Some group meals are included.. More specific information about meals and housing will be communicated to students upon acceptance.
Flights: Students are responsible for their roundtrip airfare to/from Paris.
Application Process: Students are required to apply for Travel Seminars through the MyOCSE portal. The deadline for applications is October 15, 208. Applications will then be reviewed and students will be notified of acceptance before spring 2019 registration.
If you have any questions about Transgression: The Sacred and the Profane in 20th Century Paris please stop by the OCSE office (Starbuck 202) or speak directly with the faculty who will lead the seminar - Professor Sonya Chung (English) or Professor Bradley Onishi (Religion).
