Questions of Literary History

Teacher(s)

Robert Laurent;

Language

French

Prerequisites

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Main themes

Literary history is a critical construction, ever shifting, which tells us just as much about the context in which it is produced as the periods to which it refers: discourse which brings together past and present.
The course invites students to become aware of this phenomenon by discovering the principles and elements involved in the construction of this discourse.
Each year, a specific subject is chosen (an aspect of literary life, the development of a genre or a theme), which provides the main topic for study.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of the course, students should be able to: -         set discourse on literature in a historical context and know how to recognise the principles they employ. To identify accounts of literary history as examples of built discourse. -         establish a link between literature theory (view of the the phenomenon of literature in general) and critique (view of individual works). -         set literary studies in the context of social sciences. -         produce a critique of the critique : to treat accounts of literary history as structures for analysis ; to highlight the strategies employed by different forms of criticism.

Content

The title of the course is: "Collective play: an approach of literary groups". As a first theoretical step, it returns to various notions relating to the collective dimension of literary activity such as school, cenacle, movement, group and avant-garde. It devotes then to the study of several major literary groups of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries: the Zutists, the authors of the Realistic Dixains, the OuLiPo, TXT.

Teaching methods

The course will begin by studying the theoretical notions involved before approaching the groups concerned through their constitution, their functioning, their posterity and, above all, their literary productions. The course will be masterful (but with welcome participation of the students).

Evaluation methods

For the January 2022 and August 2022 session, the examination will be oral.

Online resources

MoodleUCL and Teams

Bibliography

Corpus d’étude principal

Faculty or entity

ELAL