Prostitution
Prostitutes play a central role in nineteenth-century French fiction, especially of the realistic and naturalistic kind. Both widely available and largely visible in nineteenth-century France, prostitutes inspired many negative stereotypes. But, as the very product of the culture that marginalized her, the prostitute offered an ideal vehicle for writers to criticize the hypocrisy of bourgeois mores. The socially stratified world of prostitutes, ranging from low-ranking sex workers to high-class courtesans, presents a fascinating microcosm of French society as a whole. We will read selections from Honoré de Balzac, Splendeur et misère des courtisanes; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables; and Gustave Flaubert, L’éducation sentimentale; as well as Boule-de-Suif and other stories by Guy de Maupassant; La fille Elisa by Edmond de Goncourt; Nana by Emile Zola; Marthe by Joris-Karl Huysmans; La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils; and extracts from Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust. Additional readings will be drawn from the fields of history (Alain Corbin, Michelle Perrot) and critical theory (Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva). We will also discuss visual representations of prostitutes in nineteenth-century French art (Gavarni, Daumier, C. Guys, Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec). Conducted in French. Requisite: One of the following- French 07, 08, 11, 12 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Katsaros.

Maybe visual representions in 19th century art. Comparez les représentations des prostituées chez les peintres impressionnistes: Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec.
IMPORTANT
1. Why did they choose prostitutes? What was the thematic significance? Why did they dominate the French lit( give egs other than bibliographie)? What was the complex allure?
2. What were the general polysemiques representations of prostitutes in their work? Where they clichés or were they archetype? Hw were they different from the traditional image of the