History of French Literature from 1700 to 1850

Teacher(s)

Zanone Damien;

Language

French

Prerequisites

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Main themes

Chronological approach of the French Literature of this period ;
establishing of patterns and markers in the historiography (continuities, filiations, mutations, ruptures) ;
relation made to cultural, political, social and religious contexts.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Knowledge of important works and literary movements, from 1700 to 1850.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

The class will survey one and a half century of literature, from the triumph of Classicism to its deep subversion implied by Romanticism. In between, there is the important period of the Enligtenment which is, in the second half of the 18th Century, a consolidation of Classicism as, in the same time, the moment of its first critics.
On the changing background of these aesthetic and intellectuel movements, we will view the masterpieces of the most prominent writers. The life of literature on the long term, will be thought as an indicator of the life of society as a whole: the history of literature will be seized in connection with the broader history of the period.

Teaching methods

The course will proceed by alternating the presentation of large phenomena and that of particular texts. The preliminary reading of at least one work of the main authors of the period is recommended.

Evaluation methods

The evaluation will proceed in a three hours examination (June or September).

Other information

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Online resources

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Bibliography

Lectures obligatoires

' Prévost, Manon Lescaut (sous le titre Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, Le Livre de Poche)
' Marivaux, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (GF) ; La Dispute (Librio)
' Voltaire, L'Ingénu (GF)
' Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (GF)
' Denon, Vivant, Point de lendemain (Folio)
' Staël, Germaine de, Dix années d'exil (Rivages poche)
' Constant, Benjamin, Adolphe (GF)
' Duras, Claire de, Ourika (Folio)
' Balzac, Honoré de, Illusions perdues (GF)
' Hugo, Victor, Les Orientales (Livre de Poche) ; Lucrèce Borgia (Folio)
' Sand, George, « Lavinia » (dans La Marquise, Lavinia, Metella, Mattea, Actes Sud, « Babel ») 

Faculty or entity

ROM