Seminar : Literary History [ LROM2725 ]

Literary history and previous knowledge of different ways to analyse literary texts.

The seminar will deepen localized issues. Depending on subjects and issues, texts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century French literature will be selected.

It is thus presented as an introduction to personal research and preparation for the thesis in its various phases (analysis, problem setting, writing) from the point of view of literary history.

Written essay to be prepared individually. This work will lead to an oral presentation during a last session of the seminar. It will have to be returned at the beginning of the examination session.

The seminars are taught every other year by one or other of the principal lecturers: in 2012-2013, by Professor Zanone and in 2013-2014 by Professor Guiderdoni. Most of the sessions take place at the beginning of the semester and, after an introduction to the subject, are designed to develop different methods of dealing with the issue. Students then work independently: there will be a session to supervise the progress of this work and another to help complete it.

In the spring 2013, with Prof. Zanone, the theme will be : « Anatomy of a female glory: the example of Germaine de Staël ». « Madame de Staël » (following her traditional naming in literary history) is a case in point to broach the issue of female literary fame in the 19^th century. In particular, the contrast between her wide intellectual and artistic influence while alive and its excessive diminishing afterwards presents itself as a vantage point to better understand the position of a woman writer at the dawn of Romanticism.

In the spring 2014, with Prof. Guiderdoni, the seminar will explore the various genres related to « baroque literature », and will question, from an historiographical point of view, the definition of this category. The precise corpus of texts to be studied will be given in the Fall 2013.

Texts to be studied in 2012-2013 :

• Mme de Staël, Corinne ou l'Italie, éd. S. Balayé, Paris, Gallimard, « Folio », 1985.
• Mme de Staël, De la littérature, éd. G. Gengembre et J. Goldzink, Paris, GF-Flammarion, 1991.
• Mme de Staël, Dix années d'exil, Paris, Rivages Poche, 2012.
• Mme de Genlis, La Femme auteur, éd. M. Reid, Paris, Gallimard, « Folio », 2007.

Other possible (and adviced) readings: by Mme de Staël, De l'Allemagne (Paris, GF-Flammarion, 1968) et l'Essai sur les fictions (dans oeuvres de jeunesse, Paris, Desjonquères, 1997), Delphine (éd. B. Didier, Paris, GF-Flammarion, 2000, 2 vol.) and Trois nouvelles (éd. M. Reid, Paris, Gallimard, « Folio », 2009).

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