LE COURS |
Chance or serendipity plays an important role in scientific discovery and is an important theme in literature. We will explore this theme in Voltaire’s Candide, Prévost’s Manon Lescaut, and Diderot’s Jacques le fataliste. We will also discuss and read about chance in discoveries of French science by Louis Pasteur, Henry Becquerel and Marie Curie as well as read selections from James Watson’s La double hélice. and view videos on both Voltaire and Proust. The course will end with audio-tapes of readings from Marcel Proust’s Combray, in which chance plays a key role.
The course will be entirely in French and there are no scientific prerequisites.
Your grades will be based on regular and active class participation, an
oral presentation (in French) and two short papers which will involve visiting
this course Webb page.