French Literature 3
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide third-year specialist students with an overview of French Literature, from Renaissance to Classicism, and offers a focus on important texts of this period. A reflection is offered on the relationship - thematic, stylistic, cultural - between period and authors considered and modernity.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: 1) An essential framework of French Literature, from Renaissance to Classicism, according to the authors considered, 2) Understanding basic elements in order to analyse texts' structure (metrical, stylistic, theatrical and narrative devices). Skills. 1) Ability to identify the main expressive features (stylistic, thematic and structural) of every literary work and recognize the author's identity in it 2) Ability to date literary works in chronological and cultural connection with modernity, 3) Ability to use coherently critical contributions 4) Ability to read works and identify themes and formal issues.
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
The course is entitled 'Au seuil de la modernité: genres nouveaux, de la Renaissance au XIXème siècle'.
The course intends to analyse the emergence of new literary genres starting with Michel de Montaigne's Essais - which inaugurates modern non-fiction - via Théophile de Viau's libertine tragedy, and finally the novel À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, representative of the thematic and formal experiments of the Symbolist-decadent novel at the end of the 19th century that lead to the avant-garde of the 20th century.
The course intends to analyse the emergence of new literary genres starting with Michel de Montaigne's Essais - which inaugurates modern non-fiction - via Théophile de Viau's libertine tragedy, and finally the novel À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, representative of the thematic and formal experiments of the Symbolist-decadent novel at the end of the 19th century that lead to the avant-garde of the 20th century.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is held entirely in French, and the examination materials and bibliography presuppose skills in literary history, the use of terminology and critical analysis acquired in the previous courses of French Language and Literature 1 and 2
Teaching methods
Frontal teaching: The presentation of the course, reflections on the constituent elements of a new genre (cultural and literary climate, epochal passages, relationship between tradition and innovation); synthesis of the historical-literary context of each author considered; analysis of the texts in their various articulations (rhetorical and stylistic devices, theatrical and narrative structures)
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Teaching Resources
Bibliographical indications:
Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais (1588), PDF anthology of essays available on the Myariel website from early September
Théophile de Viau, Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé,(1623), Présentation et Dossier par Bénedicte Louvat-Molozay et Guillaume Peureux, Paris, Garnier Flammarion, 2015. The Presentation and Dossier of this edition are part of the compulsory critical material for the examination.
Joris-Karl Huysmans, À rebours, any unabridged French edition
Bibliography for attending students
1. Anthology of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October.
2. Anthology of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October
Bibliography for non-attending students
Marco Modenesi (dir.), La letteratura francese dell'Ottocento, Milan, Pearson, 2022, the chapter 'Il romanzo simbolista-decadente', pp. 303-329, ISBN 9788891927590.
Anthologies of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October
Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais (1588), PDF anthology of essays available on the Myariel website from early September
Théophile de Viau, Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé,(1623), Présentation et Dossier par Bénedicte Louvat-Molozay et Guillaume Peureux, Paris, Garnier Flammarion, 2015. The Presentation and Dossier of this edition are part of the compulsory critical material for the examination.
Joris-Karl Huysmans, À rebours, any unabridged French edition
Bibliography for attending students
1. Anthology of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October.
2. Anthology of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October
Bibliography for non-attending students
Marco Modenesi (dir.), La letteratura francese dell'Ottocento, Milan, Pearson, 2022, the chapter 'Il romanzo simbolista-decadente', pp. 303-329, ISBN 9788891927590.
Anthologies of critical essays in PDF on the my ariel website from the end of October
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral examen:The oral examen consists of an interview in French on the syllabus topic. The student will have to analyse the texts in French presented in the course, be able to contextualise them (historical-literary context), be able to recognise the elements of novelty in the genre under examination, be able to comment on the individual texts in their various articulations (rhetorical-stylistic devices, theatrical and narrative structures)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Tuesday from 2.30 to 7.30 pm.
square S.Alessandro 1, 2nd floor