31028 - French Literature 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should know the general outline of literary history. They should be able to read, understand and translate texts from French into Italian and they should also be acquainted with the methods and analytical tools they need to interpret the works of the main authors, contextualising them within their cultural and historical period.

Course contents

20th-20th Century: French Literature between space and memory in 

Students are offered a journey through 20th-century French literature with a focus on how texts articulate, and articulate their contents, around and through space. The theoretical aspect of the question is based on critical texts (see the bibliography) whose reading grid will inform the analysis of the texts. Some elements of narratology will also be provided with the support of Gérard Genette's Discours du récit. A series of pages from 20th and early 21st century books will be analysed in class. For the exam, students will read entirely in French two books within a list.
The teacher will refer to the history of literature, but students have to prepare by themselves the manual.

Readings/Bibliography

TEXTS WE WILL ANALYSE DURING THE COURSE:

- Marcel Proust, Combray (À la recherche du temps perdu, t. I)

- Jean-Paul Sartre, Huis clos

- Albert Camus, L'Étranger / Le Premier Homme

- Georges Perec, W ou le souvenir d'enfance

- Georges Perec, La vie mode d'emploi

- Patrick Modiano, Dora Bruder

- Annie Ernaux, La Place 

- Doan Bui, La Tour

 

CRITICS:

History of XXth century literature:

- Michela Landi (ed.), Letteratura francese. Dall'Ottocento al XXI secolo, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, 2021, solo la parte sul XX e XXI secolo
- OR Lionello Sozzi (ed.), Storia europea della letteratura francese, II. Dal Settecento all'età contemporanea, solo il capitolo sul XX secolo, p. 237-409, Torino, Einaudi, "Piccola biblioteca Einaudi", 2013
- OR Michèle Touret (ed.), Histoire de la littérature française au XXe siècle, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2 vol. 2008 (only pages on Virtuale)

Papers:

- Michel Collot, "Pour une géographie littéraire", Fabula LhT n. 8, mai 2011, <https://www.fabula.org/lht/8/collot.html >
- Guillaume Perrier, "Architecture médiévale et art de la mémoire dans À la recherche du temps perdu, de Marcel Proust", Etudes littéraires, vol. 42, n. 1, 2011, p. 13-22
- Thierry Laget commente Du côté de chez Swann de Marcel Proust, Paris, Gallimard, "Foliothèque", 2003, p. 31-33, 51-75
- Lynn Higgings, "Lieux de mémoire et géographie imaginaire dans Dora Bruder", dans Marc Dambre, Aline Mura-Brunel, Bruno Blanckeman (dir.), Le roman français au tournant du XXIe siècle, Paris, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2004, p. 397-405, <https://books.openedition.org/psn/1690 >

Primary texts:

students have to read entirely 2 of the following books: A. Robbe-Grillet, La Jalousie (1957); P. Modiano, Remise de peine (1988); L. Houari, Zeïda de nulle part (1985); A. Begag, Le Gone du Chaâba (1986); D. Rolin, La Rénovation (1998); C. de Peretti, Nous vieillirons ensemble (2008); M. Houellebecq, La Carte et le Territoire (2010); C. Boltanski, La Cache (2015); D. Bui, Le Silence de mon père (2016); V. Manteau, Le Sillon (2018); P. Tripier, Les Guerres précieuses (2023).

Teaching methods

The course will be held mainly in lecture form. The teacher starts explaining in French, then repeats in Italian. Later in the year, the part in Italian can be reduced, if students agree.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of two parts: a written test in Italian (in French for those who want it) and an oral test (mainly in Italian, but with at least a question in French). Those who don't pass the written test don't have access to the oral test. The oral examination is normally held in 3-4 days after the written test. The final mark is not a mathematical average of the two tests.
The written test consists of a series of 5-8 open-ended questions concerning the topics of the course and the XXth century literary history students prepare by themselves with the help of the manual (Teroni or Viart). At least one of the questions involves the comment of an excerpt among those that have been analyzed by the teacher. The two tests should verify the descriptive knowledge of the topics analysed during the course, the ability to contextualize the cultural and literary phenomena and to identify the originality of the texts studied. They also assess the ability of critical synthesis of the bibliography, as well as students' expressive properties, in terms of accuracy and appropriateness of language. 
Students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence. Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark. A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark. Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

Power-point projection, photocopies, documents shared on line (Insegnamenti On Line).

Office hours

See the website of Maria Chiara Gnocchi