Literature and artistic movements in Europe [ LEURO1202 ]

ICampus : > https://www.icampus.ucl.ac.be/

None.

Literatures (in the broadest sense) will be analyzed, i.e. all the writings that have been decisive for the European civilization. Fine arts and music will also come under scrutiny.

Lectures will go through cultural history, more precisely European literature, in order to understand how the European civilization has emerged, from Antiquity until Modern times. EU member states will be of taken into account, as well as European states that are not part of the Community but still contribute to shape the European civilization.

The writing assessment of this course consists of a multiple choice exam based on the whole course contents.

Formal lectures by a team of two lecturers, belonging to a separate discipline, i.e. General and Comparative Literature (Prof. Erica Durante) and French Literature (Prof. Vincent Engel). Through different perspectives, both lecturers intend to provide two complementary approaches of European culture.

The primary aim of this course is to provide a broad introduction to European culture through different countries, periods and arts (cinema, literature, music, painting, etc.). In this way, the construction of Europe will be considered from a cultural viewpoint.

The course consists of two parts.

The first part aims to provide a set of main references useful to understand European culture. Through an international and diachronic perspective, it gives an overview of this culture, while focusing on major elements of European history and civilization (artists, genres, movements, works, writers, etc.).

The second part provides one or more specific themes that focus on particular phenomena of European culture. In this purpose, it analyzes a set of cultural works especially representative of these phenomena issued from different arts, centuries and countries.

Reference books:

For your own further reading, the lecturers recommend the following two manuals for the study of European literatures. Both are available in the Arts Faculty library (BFLT).

- BENOIT-DUSAUSOY Annick et FONTAINE Guy (eds.),Lettres européennes. Manuel universitaire d'histoire de la littérature européenne, 2nd edition, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2007, 860 pp.

- POLET Jean-Claude,Parcours dans le Patrimoine Littéraire Européen, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2008, 291 pp.

- SOPHOCLE, Antigone, trad. du grec ancien par Jean Grosjean. Préface de Jean-Louis Backès. Notes et lexique de Raphaël Dreyfus, Paris, Gallimard, 2011.

Other documents may be provided by the teachers during the semester and will be available on ICampus.