Aims

At the end of this course, the students should be able :
- to restore an element of the family life and of the perception or of the practice of sexuality in its historical context
- to analyze a familial situation by taking into account the continuities and discontinuities shown in terms of representations, of values or of behaviours.

Main themes

By focusing particularly on the period beginning in the middle of the XVIIIth, but without excluding the approach of former periods if necessary, the evolution of the contexts will be shortly recalled (socio-economical frame, material frame, demographical transition, emergence of the individualist, …)
The course will then consider successively the evolution of the familial structures and their influence on the formation of the couple, the mutation of the roles and of the familial functions, the disruptions concerning the body treatment and the sexuality.

Content and teaching methods

The lecture is given with the help of some transparencies, refers to a syllabus and to a complementary bibliography.
It first tackles the great revolutions having forced the West from the traditional society to the contemporary society; it deals then with the influence of these movements on the familial structures perceived through the uses of transmittal and on the modalities of couple formation perceived through the religious and juridical rules on one hand, and through the social practices on the other hand.
The various familial circles catch then the attention, focusing on the evolution of the roles of father, mother, grandparents, siblings, and family in the widest sense, related to the evolution of the child place.
The economical, educational, protective functions and then the functions generating closeness, happiness and affection in the family are analysed, even in their failures.
The disruptions of the perception of the body observed through the evolution of hygiene, of olfaction, of prudishness or of clothes introduce to the approach of conjugal or extra-conjugal sexuality

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Oral examination with 15 minutes preparation

Other credits in programs