FRENCH CULTURE AND LITTERATURE 2

This course is an introduction to 19^th and 20^th century French civilization, culture and literature. We will study various authors, works from different genres and the main literary movements that marked those centuries. Students will be provided with the linguistic, stylistic and critical tools suited to the analysis of anthological texts. Thanks to this course, we are able to apply knowledge and understanding, make judgement, communicate and learn skills, in order to take up to Master’s Degree.

This first part of the course will consist of a survey of 19^th and 20^th French literature, with a particular focus on aesthetic movements and literatures that marked French culture and civilization, such as Romanticism, Symbolism, Realism, Naturalism, Surrealism, WWI and WWII literature, the Nouveau Roman, Existentialism and francophone literature from Maghreb, Africa and the Caribbean. The main authors, genres and movements will be examined in context through the reading and analysis of some excerpts and texts.

Anthology

Close reading of at least 25 anthological texts (selected by teacher)

Series of lectures on : Dandysme et écriture fin-de-siècle

This second part of the course will be devoted to the notion of the Parisian dandy fin-de-siècle in French literature with a particular focus on Symbolism and Decadentism, some of the most meaningful writers and intellectuals of the 19^th century as Jean De Tinan. In order to gain to a better understanding of the topic, an intertextual, interdisciplinary and transnational approach will be preferred.

Histoire littéraire et anthologie

André LAGARDE et Laurent MICHARD (collection dirigée par), Les grands auteurs Français – Anthologie et histoire littéraire, Paris, Bordas.

• tome V | XIX^e siècle
• tome VI | XX^e siècle

Méthodologie

• Les genres littéraires – Les registres littéraires – Fiches de méthodes | Étude du texte littéraire – Figures de style – Vocabulaire littéraire : http://www.etudes-litteraires.com
• Lexique des termes littéraires : Michel JARRETY (sous la dir.), Lexique des termes littéraires, Paris, Librairie Générale Française, 2001 | http://www.lettres.org/lexique

Classiques à lire (1 du XIX^e et 2 du XX^e siècle)

XIX^e siècle

Honoré de Balzac, La Peau de chagrin, Paris, Gallimard, « folioplus classiques », 2003.

XX^e siècle

André Gide, La Symphonie pastorale, Paris, Gallimard, « folio », 1973.

Colette, Mes apprentissages, Paris, Fayard, 2004.

Cours monographique : Dandysme et écriture fin-de-siècle

Karin BECKER, Le dandysme littéraire en France au XIX^e siècle, Orléans, Paradigme, 2010.

Jean DE TINAN, Penses-tu réussir ! ou Les diverses amours de mon ami Raoul de Vallonges, Paris, Éditions de La Table Ronde, « la petite vermillon », 2003.