FRENCH 159 - Sex Work: Epistemology of the Prostitute

Beginning in the nineteenth century, prostitution became a central theme in canonical French literature and a central target of social scientific inquiry. Knowledge about the world seemed to flow through the figure and the body of the “prostitute.” In this course, we will situate this knowledge production within the histories of prostitution, social investigation, the city of Paris, and the novel in order to understand why this was the case. In the process, we will pay close attention to the many things the prostitute symbolized from the nineteenth century to the present—from an embodiment of society’s ills to a searing critique of the social order itself.