Index# 03733
Will NOT count toward SAS – French Major
Will count toward SAS – French Minor
Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish Captain in the French army, was convicted of spying in December 1894, then cleared of any guilt in July 1906. Between these two moments lies a period of extraordinary judicial and political drama, a drama that went beyond the fate of a simple Captain, as it marked a major turning point in the socio-political and cultural history of France, of the Jewish people, and, in a sense, of Western society in general. The seminar will trace the events of the Dreyfus Affair proper, situate them in their historical context, and discuss their philosophical implications and political consequences. In particular, we will examine the major role the Affair had in generating some of the conflicting views that were to dominate the 20th century, around questions of social identity – what does it mean to be "French", or "Jewish" – and the answers provided to these questions by fascism, on the one hand, and by humanistic ideologies on the other. More profoundly, the seminar will attempt to understand the way the Dreyfus Affair reframed the debate over concepts such as "justice," "truth," "race," "nation" and "intellectuals." Readings will include chapters of Jean-Denis Bredin's masterful overview, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus, polemical texts by Emile Zola and others, and various newspaper articles, photographs, and cartoons. Students will also be required to watch several films, including William Dieterle's "The Life of Emile Zola" (1937), Jose Ferrer's "I Accuse!"(1958), and Ken Russell's "Prisoner of Honor" (1991).During the semester, students will be encouraged to give a short oral exposé on a specific topic of interest to them and related to the questions discussed in class. All students will be required to provide a final research paper on a topic of their choice, in consultation with the teacher. A writing workshop will take place three weeks prior to the end of the semester, to give students some guidance with respect to the final paper. Class grades will be based on class participation (40%) and the final paper (60%).
About Professor Eisenzweig
URI EISENZWEIG is a distinguished Professor of French and Comparative Literature. His research centers on the role of literary imagination in the formation of political discourse in post-revolutionary France and Europe. This interest guided him to write Territoires occupés de l'imaginaire juif (Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1980), Fictions de l'anarchisme , and Naissance littéraire du fascisme (Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 2013). A more specific focus on the weakening belief in the narrative nature of truth at the end of the nineteenth century has led him to explore the peculiar late 19th century imagination of acts of violence that cannot be easily told: the mysterious crime in detective fiction, studied in Autopsies du roman policier (10-18, Paris, 1983) and Le Récit impossible (Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1986); the rise of so-called “terrorism,” on which he wrote several articles, as well as some chapters of his Fictions de l'anarchisme.