29062 - French Literature (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyse a French literary text, by making reference to the theory of the text and by developing his awareness concerning the workings of the textual production within one of the main tradition of the European culture. He will improve, as far as possible, his knowledge of the relationship between general literature and particular literature, as well as his own stylistic skills.

Course contents

French intellectuals and the epistolary genre: real and imaginary correspondences from Early Modern to contemporary times

 

• Real letters between bibliophiles or intellectuals that inform us about the circulation of books and ideas from Early Modern (Pinelli/Dupuy) to the 20th century (the great German philologist Ernst Robert Curtius and André Gide);

• private letters revealing a certain vision of writing and art (Balzac letters to Madame Hanska or Flaubert's letters to Louise Colet);
• letters from readers to authors (for example from readers of the Nouvelle Héloïse to Rousseau);
• letters as the only literary work of an author (Madame de Sévigné);
• fictional letters to real recipients (for example the letters of the traveler Maximilien Misson) and letters to imaginary correspondents (such as Albert Camus's Lettres à un ami allemand);

• Letters within novels (as in the case of the first great modern novel, La Princesse de Clèves) or actual epistolary novels, from the origins to the great Eighteenth-century floraison (Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, Madame de Graffigny's Lettres d'une péruvienne, Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse and Laclos's Liaisons dangereuses), or from minor works by major nineteenth-century authors (the Mémoires de deux filles mariées by Honoré de Balzac) up to the full twentieth century (Alexis ou le traité du vain combat by Marguerite Yourcenar) and to the extreme contemporary remakes (La toile by Sandra Lucbert).

Readings/Bibliography

 12 ECTS

Chosen passages analized during classes (uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform) and:

1. complete reading of 4 of the novels analized during classes (a list will be uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform);
2. study of

Geneviève HAROCHE-BOUZINAC, L’épistolaire, Paris, Hachette, 1995 or Guy FESSIER, L’épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 2003.

Laurent VERSINI, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 1979 or Frédéric CALAS, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, Armand Colin, 1996.

Bernard BRAY, Roman par lettres. Usages poétiques de la première personne dans la littérature française, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2019, pp. 53-105.

and of 4 articles relating to the novels the student has chosen to read (the list will be provided during classes).

Non-attending students will prepare the final exam following the previous bibliography, but they are also required to study the chapters concerning authors analyzed during classes in Antologia cronologica della letteratura francese, Milano, LED, 1996-1999.

 

9 ECTS

Chosen passages analized during classes (uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform) and:

1. complete reading of 3 of the novels analized during classes (a list will be uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform);
2. study of

Geneviève HAROCHE-BOUZINAC, L’épistolaire, Paris, Hachette, 1995 or Guy FESSIER, L’épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 2003.

Laurent VERSINI, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 1979 or Frédéric CALAS, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, Armand Colin, 1996.

Bernard BRAY, Roman par lettres. Usages poétiques de la première personne dans la littérature française, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2019, pp. 53-105.

and of 3 articles relating to the novels the student has chosen to read (the list will be provided during classes).

Non-attending students will prepare the final exam following the previous bibliography, but they are advised to study the chapters concerning authors analyzed during classes in Antologia cronologica della letteratura francese, Milano, LED, 1996-1999.

 

6 ECTS

Chosen passages analized during classes (uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform) and:

1. complete reading of 2 of the novels analized during classes (a list will be uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform);

1. study of

Geneviève HAROCHE-BOUZINAC, L’épistolaire, Paris, Hachette, 1995 or Guy FESSIER, L’épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 2003 or Laurent VERSINI, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, PUF, 1979 or Frédéric CALAS, Le roman épistolaire, Paris, Armand Colin, 1996.

Bernard BRAY, Roman par lettres. Usages poétiques de la première personne dans la littérature française, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2019, pp. 53-105.

and of 2 articles relating to the novels the student has chosen to read (the list will be provided during classes).

Non-attending students will prepare the final exam following the previous bibliography, but they are also required to study the chapters concerning authors analyzed during classes in Antologia cronologica della letteratura francese, Milano, LED, 1996-1999.

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures; participation is nevertheless highly encouraged.

Assessment methods

The exam consists in an oral interview during which the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated. The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to move within the sources and bibliographical material in order to be able to identify in them the useful information. The achievement of an organic vision of the issues addressed during the classes and their critical use, which demonstrate ownership of a mastery of expression and specific language, will be assessed with marks of excellence (28-30). Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of matter, synthesis and analysis of non-articulating and / or correct language but not always appropriate will lead to discrete assessments (23-27); training gaps and / or inappropriate language - although in a context of minimal knowledge of the material - will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency (18-22). Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the reference materials offered during the course will lead to failed assessments.

Teaching tools

Texts analized during classes will be uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform.

Office hours

See the website of Bruna Conconi