07305 - French Literature I

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have an adequate knowledge of French literature in relation to European literature; they will be able to read a literary text in French, both in textual and intertextual mode, with the necessary references to the history of French literary tradition. They will sharpen, as much as possible, their stylistic competences within their linguistic competences. They will have a passive knowledge of French.

Course contents

The course aims to offer a broad perspective on the most important movements and the most significant literary figures of the French nineteenth and twentieth-century literature. In addition to reading and commenting on various excerpts, the course aims to analyze in detail four novels, selected for their ability to effectively represent the literary transformations that span the two centuries, with particular attention to the literary form of the novel.

Starting from the realist disenchantment of Eugénie Grandet, the course will continue towards the second part of the nineteenth century by examining the scientism of Émile Zola's "roman expérimental" and its aporias. Through the first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu, we will instead explore the early twentieth-century crisis of canonical realism, to then arrive at the notion, both formal and thematic, of the absurd in the works of Albert Camus.

Readings/Bibliography

Literary History

- Lionello SOZZI (a cura di), Storia europea della letteratura francese. II. Dal Settecento all’età contemporanea, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 (only 19^th and 20^th century).

Readings

Full reading of the following works:

N.B. Edition at your choice. Beginners are free to read translated versions.

Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet

Émile Zola, La Bête humaine

Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann

Albert Camus, L’Étranger

Texts analyzed during classes (uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform) and the following articles/chapters of books are mandatory readings:

György Lukács, La polemica tra Balzac e Stendhal, in Saggi sul realismo, Torino, Einaudi, 1970, pp. 90-114.

Erich Auerbach, All’hôtel de la Mole, in Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 220-268.

R. Ripoll, Zola et le modèle positiviste, « Romantisme », vol. VIII, 1978, p. 125-135.

Philippe Hamon, Les contraintes du projet réaliste, in Le personnel du roman. Le système des personnages dans les Rougon-Macquart, Genève, Droz, 1983, pp. 27-106.

Jean-Yves Tadié, Le Temps, in Proust et le roman: essai sur les formes et techniques du roman dans À la recherche du temps perdu, Paris, Gallimard, 1971, pp. 293-319.

Gérard Genette, La métonymie chez Proust, in Figures III, Paris, Seuil, 1972, pp. 41-63.

Erich Köhler, L’assurdo. Grandezza e miseria del dominio del possibile, in Il romanzo e il caso: da Stendhal a Camus, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1990, pp. 75-104.

Brian T. Fitch, La technique narrative e L’attitude du lecteur, in Narrateur et narration dans L’Étranger d’Albert Camus, Paris, Minard, 1968, pp. 13-45.

Non-attending students will prepare the final exam following the previous bibliography with the support of these additional readings:

• 15 excerpts from Antologia cronologica della letteratura francese. L’Ottocento, Milano, LED, 1998:

  De l’Allemagne di Madame de Staël

  Hernani di Victor Hugo

  Les Destinées di Vigny

  Le rouge et le Noir di Stendhal

  Le Père Goriot di Balzac

  Madame Bovary di Flaubert

  Les Fleurs du mal di Baudelaire

  Les Misérables di Hugo

  Germinie Lacerteux dei Goncourt

  L’assommoir di Zola

  Boule de suif di Maupassant

  A rebours di Huysmans

  Illuminations di Rimbaud

  Poésies di Mallarmé

  Les Déracinés di Barrès

• 15 excerpts from Antologia cronologica della letteratura francese. Il Novecento, Milano, LED, 1999:

L’île des pingouins di France

Du côté de chez Swann di Proust

Le feu. Journal d’une escouade di Barbusse

Manifeste Dada di Tzara

Manifeste du surréalisme di Breton

Les Faux-Monnayeurs di Gide

Voyage au bout de la nuit di Céline

L’étranger di Camus

L’écume des jours di Vian

La modification de Butor

Moderato cantabile di Duras

Zazie dans le métro di Queneau

La route des Flandres di Simon

L’œuvre au noir di Yourcenar

Désert di Le Clézio

Students with Specific Learning Disabilities, or other temporary or permanent disabilities: it is recommended to contact the responsible University office in advance (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it): it will be their responsibility propose any adaptations to the interested students, which must in any case be submitted, 15 days in advance, for the approval of the teacher, who will evaluate their adequacy also in relation to the educational objectives of the course.

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.

N.B. Although the interview takes place in Italian, an oral test of French language skills is required for first year CLE students. This takes place through the reading and translation into Italian of a short text, taken from the works in the program.

Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Michele Morselli