FRENCH LITERATURE II

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

L1002

Academic Year of enrolment:

2017

Year of supply:

2018/2019

Type of Course:

Characterising

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Disciplinary Sector:

French Literature

Location:

PESCARA

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

D'ASCENZO Federica

Cycle:

First semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

135

Prerequisites:

Having passed the examination of French Literature I and therefore possessing a good knowledge of French literature from its origins to 1715.
Good cultural knowledge with particular attention to the main turning points of modern and contemporary history. Knowledge of the essential features of Italian literature from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Objectives

Training objectives:
The course aims at the implementation of the methodological abilities aimed at the structural comprehension of the French literary history already acquired through the course French Literature I, and also to draw a background of the cultural patrimony of French Civilization.
Through the chronological study of an anthological selection of key works of the historical and literary period in program, the most relevant dynamics in genres, movements, fashions and ideas will be illustrated.
The course will also focus on a key aspect of French literary modernity: the birth of the narrative realism in the first half of the 19th century – period during which the French novel establishes itself in Europe as a model and the most receptive literary form of historical and social modernity. The course aims at highlighting, also through the analysis of three crucial and classic works of the period such as Le Rouge et le Noir, Le Père Goriot e Madame Bovary, the existing relationships among history, literary coding and construction of modern imaginary.
The course will also develop the knowledge of theoretical and methodological tools necessary to the literary and linguistic analysis of the texts.
During the three-year Degree, this course constitutes a second step in the development of the knowledge of the philological and literary context of the French language both in a diachronic perspective (literary history) and a synchronic perspective (introduction to textual analysis and text interpretation).
The acquisition of knowledge regarding two key centuries in History and French literature like the 18th and 19th Century during which modernity finally takes shape, will be fundamental.

Knowledge and understanding:
- knowledge and understanding of the basic manifestations of the French literary heritage of the reference period (1715-1870);
- in-depth knowledge of early nineteenth-century French novel and its historical, linguistic and cultural context;
- ability to understand the French-language literary texts of the reference period.

Autonomy of judgement:
- ability to describe and interpret literary texts of the reference period in a precise and informed manner;
- ability to reformulate the issues related to the social and historical-cultural contexts analyzed in the period of reference.

Communication skills:
- the ability to present, orally and in view of the textual types and literary genres, content and information relating to French literature of the reference period.

Contents

The course consists of two modules:
Module I (4 CFU) will concern the French literary history from 1715 to 1870. The following topics connected with the indicated period will be analyzed:
- the main linguistic and literary phenomena;
- historical and cultural contexts;
- the birth and evolution of literary genres;
- the most representative authors;
- the most significant literary movements;
- analysis and interpretation of a selection of anthological pieces.
Module II (5 CFU) will be focused on the great season of French Realism from the first half of the 19th Century that establishes the apotheosis of the novel as the genre of modernity and represents a model for the European novel. The golden age of the French novel will be illustrated in concert with the following topics:
- The birth of Realism and its definition
- The characteristics of the first Nineteenth Century’s realism;
- The romantic realism;
- The sense of real;
- The social novel;
- The total novel;
- The invention of time;
- The importance of Form: the “artiste” Realism;
- Analysis and interpretation of the three works in programme: Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir; Honoré de Balzac, Le Père Goriot; Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.

Extended Syllabus

Module I: History of French literature from 1715 to 1870
The course will be structured as follows. Students are however required to study all authors in the reference manual.
The Eighteenth century
• The historical context: the Régence; the Révolution française and the end of the Ancien Régime; the Terreur (1793);
• Illuminism and l’Encyclopédie;
• The Philosophes: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau;
• The Eighteenth-Century novel;
• The Eighteenth-Century theatre.
Il XIX secolo
• The historical context: consequences of the Révolution française; Napoléon Bonaparte; the Restauration (1814-1830); the Monarchie de Juillet (1830-1848); the Seconde République (1848-1852); the Second Empire (1852-1870); the Industrial Revolution;
• Romanticism: themes and motifs; esotism; the romantic hero; the authors: François-René de Chateaubriand; Alphonse de Lamartine; Victor Hugo; Alfred de Musset;
• Realism: the realist battle; the realist novel; the authors: Stendhal; Honoré de Balzac; Gustave Flaubert (see module II);
• Poetry: Charles Baudelaire; parnassian poetry.

The module will analyze some passages of the most significant works of the period that will be verified during the final test:
1. MONTESQUIEU, Rica à Ibben, à Smirne - Lettre XXIV, Lettres persanes, dossier et notes réalisés par A. Sandrier, Paris, Gallimard («Folioplus classiques»), 2006, pp. 55-58.
2. VOLTAIRE, Candide ou l’Optimisme, in Candide et autres contes, édition complète présentée, établie et annotée par F. Deloffre avec la collaboration de J. Van den Heuvel et J. Hellegouarc’h, postface de R. Barthes, Paris, Gallimard («Folio classique»), 1992, pp. 9-11.
3. Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU, Les Confessions, préface de J.-B. Pontalis, texte établi par B. Gagnebin et M. Raymond, notes de C. Kœnig, Paris, Gallimard («Folio classique»), pp. 124-126.
4. Denis DIDEROT, Jacques le Fataliste et son maître, édition établie, présentée et annotée par Y. Belaval, Paris, Gallimard («Folio classique»), 1973, pp. 35-37.
5. François-René de CHATEAUBRIAND, René, éd. par C. Marcellesi, Paris, Librairie Larousse («Classiques Larousse»), 1974, pp. 53-55.
6. Alphonse de LAMARTINE, «Au Rossignol», Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, in Œuvres poétiques complètes, texte établi, annoté et présenté par M.-F. Guyard, Paris, nrf-Gallimard («Bibliothèque de la Pléiade»), 1963, pp. 455-457.
7. Victor HUGO, «Demain dès l’aube.», Les Contemplations, in Œuvres complètes. Poésie II, présentation de J. Gaudon, Paris, Robert Laffont («Bouquins»), 1985, p. 410.
8. Charles BAUDELAIRE, «Correspondances», in Les Fleurs du mal et autres poèmes, chronologie et préface par H. Lemaître, Paris, GF Flammarion, 1964, pp. 39-40.

Modulo II: The novelists of the real in the first half of the nineteenth century
• the birth of realism and its definition;
• the characteristics of early nineteenth-century realism;
• the sense of reality: the referential illusion, the social reference;
• the social novel: the realism of the news, the critical realism, the dialectical realism;
• Stendhal: romantic realism; totality and detail: the writing of the event; a sociology of powers and transgression; Le Rouge et le Noir;
• Balzac: the total novel: macro and microcosms, trajectories, allegories; a sociology of classes and mobility; time and duration; the "Comédie humaine"; Le Père Goriot;
• Flaubert: the importance of form and the construction of "artiste" realism; social discourses and their protest; Madame Bovary.

Recommended Bibliography

Module I:
• Pierre BRUNEL, Storia della letteratura francese (volume for the period indicated), Rapallo, Cideb (last version).
• Lecture notes with selection of anthological pieces made available by the teacher (see details in “Extended program”).
Students who already have a solid background in French literary history will be able to use the following text to replace Pierre Brunel’s manual:
• Lionello SOZZI (a cura di), Storia europea della letteratura francese. I. Dal Settecento all’età contemporanea, Torino, Einaudi, 2013.
Modulo II:
• STENDHAL, Le Rouge et le Noir, dossier et notes par Isabelle Mimouni, lecture d’image par Juliette Bertron, Paris, Gallimard («Folioplus classiques»), 2016;
• Honoré de BALZAC, Le Père Goriot, dossier et notes réalisés par Sophie-Aude Picon, lecture d’image par Sophie Barthélémy, Paris, Gallimard («Folioplus classiques»), 2011;
• Gustave FLAUBERT, Madame Bovary. Mœurs de province, dossier réalisé par François Kerlouégan, lecture d’image par Alain Jaubert, Paris, Gallimard («Folioplus classiques»), 2004;
• Anna Maria SCAIOLA (eds.), Il romanzo francese dell’Ottocento, Bari, Laterza, 2008 (6th ed.).
Readings recommended for further study (such readings are heavily recommended for non-attending students):
• Stefano AGOSTI, Il romanzo francese dell’Ottocento. Lingua forme genealogie, Bologna, Il Mulino («Collezione di Testi e Studi»), 2010;
• Victor BROMBERT, «Madame Bovary»: la tragedia dei sogni, in I romanzi di Flaubert, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1989, pp. 45-100;
• Jacques DUBOIS, Les romanciers du réel. De Balzac à Simenon, Paris, Points («Essais»), 2000;
• Francesco FIORENTINO, L’ambizione: «Il rosso e il nero». Stendhal, 1830, in Franco MORETTI (a cura di), La cultura del romanzo, Volume I, Torino, Einaudi, 2001, pp. 409-418;
• Francesco FIORENTINO, Introduzione a Honoré de BALZAC, Papà Goriot, traduzione e note di Anna D’Elia, Milano, BUR Rizzoli («Grandi classici BUR»), 2016, pp. V-XXI.

N.B. The French Literature Lessons IIA (8 CFU) of the Degree in Linguistic Mediation and Intercultural Communication (L-12) are borrowed from this teaching. The program of the first module is identical for all students (L-11 and L-12). As far as the second module is concerned, the programme for students of the L-12 Degree consists of Stendhal’s novel, Le Rouge et le Noir and Balzac’s Le Père Goriot and the text by Anna Maria Scaiola, Il romanzo francese dell’Ottocento. The indications referring to the recommended supplementary readings remain unchanged, especially for students who are not attending the course.

Teaching Methods

The course is semi-annual and is structured in 54 hours of lectures, divided into lessons of 1 or 2 hours according to the didactic calendar. The course includes two modules: the first consists of 24 hours of frontal teaching, the second of 30 hours. The course will be held in such a way as to stimulate the involvement of students especially in the analysis and interpretation of texts.
In addition to lectures, there will also be possible seminars and conferences held by scholars.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The verification of the learning will take place through a final oral exam with a mark in thirtieths, which will examine the knowledge related to the literary history from 1715 to 1870 and the mastery of the concepts and contents illustrated in module II. The ability to understand and analyze a literary text will also be evaluated; at the end, a request will be made to comment on one of the planned anthological pieces and to frame it in the historical-literary context.

Contacts/More Information

Attendance at lessons is strongly recommended on a continuous basis. Students who do not attend are invited to go to at least one of the teacher's tutoring hours (which is held weekly at the time indicated on the Department’s web page) to illustrate the program and/or for any clarifications.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree