The course uses a broadly Disability Studies inflected approach to explore how the interrelated concepts of blindness and vision are represented in French fiction, film and theory in order to understand why sightedness and blindness are such important elements in French culture and to explore what is at stake in their representation. Questions discussed will include: How is blindness depicted in French culture? What do these depictions tell us about French attitudes to key concepts such as blindness, vision, appearance, normality, beauty and the gaze? Is seeing or not seeing gendered in any way? Do words and images relate to blindness differently? What happens when the blind or the partially blind speak for themselves? What is at stake in the widespread use of blindness as a metaphor?