Christopher Sheehan Braider
Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80309-0001)
FA-51501-05
Fellowships for University Teachers
Research Programs
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[Grant products][Prizes]
Totals:
$40,000 (approved)
$40,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
6/1/2005 – 5/31/2006
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Reason and Experience in the Age of Descartes
A series of interdisciplinary readings in 17th-century French literature (Descartes, Molière, Pascal, Boileau) and art (Poussin, portrait painting) aimed at dislodging the conventional view that period culture was dominated by the figure known as the "Cartesian subject" and by the order of methodized rational representation supposed to define French classicism. By showing how the dualist picture of rational conscious autonomy was challenged in the period itself, the book develops a richer, more nuanced and, above all, non-reductive appreciation both of French classical culture and of the wider Western tradition that authorities like Foucault and Rorty take it to epitomize.
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