UCL - Modern French Authors: narrative texts

[ROM1525]

[30h + 15h] 4.5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st & 2d semester.

This two-yearly course is taught in 2007-2008, 2009-2010,...

Teacher(s): Vincent Engel, Georges Jacques

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of the course, students will be able to use the models proposed in courses on theory and highlight their relevance to the scientific study of novels. Moreover, they will be able to:
- analyse scientifically extensive literary works belonging to the French canon (17th-19th-century works);
- highlight how reality is constructed and represented in the works under consideration (especially with the notion of literary genres);
- put these texts into a historical context (history of literary genres);
- examine the ideological and aesthetic dimension of the texts under consideration.
The course will help students prepare and complete their dissertation.

Main themes

The close textual analysis of one literary work (or several belonging to the same genre) written in French will provide students with a large number of methodological approaches. Examples: Fournier's Le Grand-Meaulnes, Zola's L'Assommoir, Flaubert, Maupassant, Diderot's Jacques le Fataliste, Proust's A la recherché du temps perdu, Beckett.

Interactive workshops (max. 20 students) will help students analyse the linguistic, stylistic and aesthetic dimensions of several novels and plays. Students will first analyse representative excerpts and develop their own critical approach through the reading of some texts of criticism written by specialists. In-class discussions and pedagogical initiatives will be encouraged to enable the students to become truly familiar with the literary work and broaden their readings.

Content and teaching methods

Complete and detailed study of literary works in French following various methodological approaches. Workshops deal with some 15 literary works from the 17th, 18th and 19thcenturies.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

The course will not attain its goal if students do not acquire a sufficient knowledge of the work under study in the first weeks of the course.

Written exam. Continuous and final assessment for the tutorials. This assessment covers tutorial participation on the basis of personal interventions and an oral presentation (analysis of a novel or play not covered in class).

Reading folder for the tutorials.

15 hours, 3 groups.

Means: The tutorial activities directed by a new course holder correspond to a part-time assistant work-load.