Francophone Cultures I
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
Through a transdisciplinary approach, the course aims to provide the student with an introduction to the knowledge of cultural and intercultural practices that have developed in the main French-speaking areas. To this end, various media will be used (literary texts, critical texts, images, videos) which, compared, will allow students to critically understand the cultural and transcultural dynamics in those areas and in comparison with metropolitan space.
Expected learning outcomes
The ability, throughout specific critical instruments, to understand, analyze and compare different cultural phenomena, socio-anthropological dynamics, intercultural and transcultural relationships. In particular, the aim is to allow the student to have the widest possible vision of the manifold diversity that make up contemporary societies and to develop possible responses to the problems that will arise in the course of this cultural investigation and in their practice and agency as mediators.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
"Mapping the French cultural presence in the Americas: settlements, migrations and Francophone diasporas across the American continent and the Atlantic"
The aim of the course is to help understand the trajectories of the impact and evolution of the French cultural matrix in the Americas (not only the North) and to study its places of rootedness and dispersion, both from a historical point of view (voyages of exploration, the phenomenon of the Slave Trade, colonisation, contemporary history), and from a cultural point of view (assimilation, cultural mimicry, hybridisation, creolisation, migrant cultures).
The following geographical areas will therefore be considered: continental America (Quebec, Acadia, Ontario, Louisiana, the Canadian West, New England), the Caribbean, the Creole Islands and South America (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti, Guyana), emphasising the complex cultural relationships that link the Americas to Europe and Africa across the Atlantic.
The aim of the course is to help understand the trajectories of the impact and evolution of the French cultural matrix in the Americas (not only the North) and to study its places of rootedness and dispersion, both from a historical point of view (voyages of exploration, the phenomenon of the Slave Trade, colonisation, contemporary history), and from a cultural point of view (assimilation, cultural mimicry, hybridisation, creolisation, migrant cultures).
The following geographical areas will therefore be considered: continental America (Quebec, Acadia, Ontario, Louisiana, the Canadian West, New England), the Caribbean, the Creole Islands and South America (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti, Guyana), emphasising the complex cultural relationships that link the Americas to Europe and Africa across the Atlantic.
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites are given for taking the course. Although knowledge of French is not required in the first year, it would be very useful to have some rudiments as some of the material will not be in Italian (the teacher will translate the texts in class).
Teaching methods
A transdisciplinary approach will be applied through the use of different media (literary texts, critical texts, images, videos) which, when compared, will allow students to critically understand the cultural and transcultural dynamics taking place in the areas studied.
Teaching Resources
Bibliography for attending students:
1. Handout Francophone Cultures 1-2 (MED) a.y. 2022-23 available from the Lumi bookshop in Sesto S. Giovanni. The handout contains extracts from the books on the programme, corresponding to the partition of the course into three modules:
Part I - Alain Beaulieu, Yves Bergeron, Amérique française. L'aventure, Québec, Editions Fides, 2002 (contained in the Handout)
Part II - Patrick Chamoiseau - Raphaël Confiant, Lettres créoles. Tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature (1635-1975), Paris, Gallimard, 1999, "Folio" (contained in the Handout)
Part III - (contained in the Handout) Emile Ollivier, Repérages (pp. 251-281) ; La mémoire sans frontière (pp. 282-289) ; Edouard Glissant, Une Introduction à une poétique du divers (pp. 290-298)
2. Content uploaded under "Register" in the Ariel platform under Francophone Cultures 1-2 MED. It is necessary to be familiar with all the materials uploaded in the Register space, e.g. attachments (PDF, word texts...) and the content to which the links refer.
3. Reading and analysis of Dany Laferrière's novel, Sono uno scrittore giapponese, ed. it. Rome, 66thands second, 2019. Students who wish can read the text in the original French version (Je suis un écrivain Japonais, any edition will do).
Bibliography for non-attending students
In addition to ALL materials and books indicated in the syllabus for frequent attendees, non-attending students should read and study the following text:
Simon Langlois (ed.), Identité et cultures nationales. L'Amérique française en mutation, Les presses de l'Université de Laval, 1995
NB: The book is open-access free of charge and is available at the link: https://www.erudit.org/fr/livres/culture-francaise-damerique/identite-cultures-nationales-lamerique-francaise-en-mutation/
Study only the PDF chapters from p. 3 to 166 and p. 255 to p. 312.
1. Handout Francophone Cultures 1-2 (MED) a.y. 2022-23 available from the Lumi bookshop in Sesto S. Giovanni. The handout contains extracts from the books on the programme, corresponding to the partition of the course into three modules:
Part I - Alain Beaulieu, Yves Bergeron, Amérique française. L'aventure, Québec, Editions Fides, 2002 (contained in the Handout)
Part II - Patrick Chamoiseau - Raphaël Confiant, Lettres créoles. Tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature (1635-1975), Paris, Gallimard, 1999, "Folio" (contained in the Handout)
Part III - (contained in the Handout) Emile Ollivier, Repérages (pp. 251-281) ; La mémoire sans frontière (pp. 282-289) ; Edouard Glissant, Une Introduction à une poétique du divers (pp. 290-298)
2. Content uploaded under "Register" in the Ariel platform under Francophone Cultures 1-2 MED. It is necessary to be familiar with all the materials uploaded in the Register space, e.g. attachments (PDF, word texts...) and the content to which the links refer.
3. Reading and analysis of Dany Laferrière's novel, Sono uno scrittore giapponese, ed. it. Rome, 66thands second, 2019. Students who wish can read the text in the original French version (Je suis un écrivain Japonais, any edition will do).
Bibliography for non-attending students
In addition to ALL materials and books indicated in the syllabus for frequent attendees, non-attending students should read and study the following text:
Simon Langlois (ed.), Identité et cultures nationales. L'Amérique française en mutation, Les presses de l'Université de Laval, 1995
NB: The book is open-access free of charge and is available at the link: https://www.erudit.org/fr/livres/culture-francaise-damerique/identite-cultures-nationales-lamerique-francaise-en-mutation/
Study only the PDF chapters from p. 3 to 166 and p. 255 to p. 312.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam will be oral and in Italian. It will focus on the verification, through a dialogue, of the skills acquired during the course of re-elaboration of concepts, notions and their updating with respect to the Italian case.
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Professor(s)