FRENCH LITERATURE 1 MOD.1

The class of "Littérature française" is one of the main teachings of the French course of the Master Degree Course in European, American and post-colonial languages and literatures. It allows students to acquire an advanced knowledge of the history of French literature as well as mastery of theoretical-critical methodologies.
Teaching objectives:
Through a course structured in graduated training stages, students will be able to deal with complex literary and critical texts in French (to read, analyze, interpret and place them in their respective historical-cultural contexts) and to master the techniques related to literary studies and textual analysis (philology, history of genres, poetry, rhetoric, hermeneutics, stylistics, reception, theoretical-literary terminology
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1. Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge of the historical and cultural context covered by the program ; knowledge of the history of classical and modern French poetics; knowledge of applied criticism.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Ability to read, understand, analyze, interpret and situate in their respective historical-cultural contexts ancient and modern critical texts.
3. Ability to make judgments
Ability to evaluate different approaches, methods and interpretations of the texts under consideration; ability to exercise critical spirit and analytical skills; ability to navigate among different critical perspectives.
4. Communication skills
Ability to expound problems and analyses concerning the subject program with logical and chronological rigor, and to express concepts with clarity and terminological precision.
5. Learning skills
Ability to synthesize, connect, order, convey ideas, forms and data.

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Knowledge of the general frameworks of the history of modern French literature acquired through the basic literary teachings of the three-year degree course in Languages, civilizations and language sciences.
Since the course is given in French, a mastery of the French language (written and oral) is required at level C1 of the CEFR, also in view of the examination.

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The canon, the norm and the rule: French poetic arts between adherence, concession and denial

Since Aristotle, and especially since Horace, the poetic arts have been part of the history of poetry: they present a state of poetry, a set of instructions and an aesthetic ideal. They are part of a genre that was shaped by canonical models until the second half of the 19th century, before breaking away from them. Irony, parody and derision offer counter-models of poetic art, representative of modernity.
Our course will examine, in context, texts that founded or challenged the main French poetics from the 16th to the 20th centuries, from a historical, rhetorical and critical perspective. We will focus on the social and instutional importance of these models (and counter-models); we will consider the notion of genre; we will question the performative and cognitive aspects of metapoetic discourse; we will seek to assess the individual and collective significance of these texts; and we will study their impact on critical discourse.

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Sources primaires

Aristote, Poétique
Horace, Épître aux Pisons ~ 13 ac (Epistularum liber secundus)
Sébillet, Art poétique françois (1548)
Ronsard, Abrégé de l'art poétique français (1565)
Malherbe, Commentaire sur Desportes (1606)
Statuts et règlements de l'Académie française (1635)
La Querelle du Cid (Scudéry, observations sur le Cid; Sentiments de l'Académie française, 1637)
Vaugelas, Remarques sur la langue française (1647)
Boileau, L’Art poétique, I (1674)
Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes (Perrault, Le Siècle de Louis-le-Grand; La Fontaine, Épître à Huet ) 1687
Rivarol, De l'Universalité de la langue française (1784)
Louis-Simon Auger, Discours sur le Romantisme (1824)
Victor Hugo, préface des Odes et ballades (1826)
Victor Hugo, préface de Cromwell (1827)
Victor Hugo, Réponse à un acte d'accusation (1856)
Stéphane Mallarmé, « Crise de vers » (1886-1897)

Sources secondaires

Baudouin, C. et Lata, M. (dir.), Sacré canon, Autorité et marginalité en littérature, Éditions Rue d’Ulm, Coll. « Actes de la recherche à l’Ens » 2017.
Bury, E., Le Classicisme. L’avènement du modèle littéraire français.1660-1680, Paris, Nathan, 1993.
Compagnon, A., Le démon de la théorie : Littérature et sens commun, Paris, Editions du Seuil,
Compagnon, A., Les cinq paradoxes de la modernité littéraire, Paris, Editions du Seuil,
Demers, J., (éd.), Ars poetica, Études littéraires, Vol. 22, n° 3, hiver 1990.
Dessons, G., « Les Arts poétiques », in Introduction à la poétique, approche des théories de la littérature, Paris, Armand Colin, coll. « Lettres sup », 2005, p. 42-97.
Le canon littéraire, Littérature, n° 196, 2019.
Le XIXe siècle face aux canons littéraires : persistance, remises en cause, transformations, Revue d'histoire littéraire de France, janvier-mars 2014.
Robert. L., « Canon, canonisation », dans Dictionnaire du littéraire, éd. Paul Aron, Denis Saint-Amand, Alain Viala, Paris, PUF, 2002, p.70-72.



Des compléments bibliographiques seront apportés pour chaque auteur pendant le cours.

The teaching includes two complementary ways of testing learning:
1. A paper in French to be handed in at least seven days before the oral test (50% of the assessment).
Of about 15 folders, it will carry on a topic of your choice related to the course subject, to be agreed mainly with the lecturer. Setting, bibliographical tools, writing methods and typographical standards will be communicated during class.
2. An oral test in French on the subjects discussed during the course (50% of the grade).
The test compulsorily involves :
- the reading and in-depth analysis of the texts on the "sources primaires" list
- the reading of two essays present in the "sources secondaires" list

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Lectures, conferences, textual analysis seminars

written and oral