Aims

The skills to be acquired are aesthetic, historical, and political in nature. They involve
- recognizing the existence,
- knowing the complex history,
- understanding the worth and the particular characteristics,
- and analysing the main works
of Belgium's French-speaking literature.

Main themes

- The course studies the works of the most recognized authors and goes on to look at the complex conditions of the emergence and blossoming of a French-speaking literature in Belgium.
- Analysis of exceptional works and of the aesthetic currents to which they belong leads, more generally, to exploring their connections with the country's political, linguistic, and institutional history, to identifying affinities with the literature of neighbouring countries (in particular, France and Germany), and, in the case of the most recent of them, to situate them within the framework of the French-speaking world.
There are no prerequisites for this course. The course consists of lectures anda list of required reading. A written examination will evaluate knowledge of history and of literary history, as well as an aesthetic analysis of works.

Content and teaching methods

- Method: Focuses on major works in order to deal with their aesthetic and historical context, as well as issues of identity.
- Content: The complex story of the emergence of a literature. De Coster and La Légende d'Ulenspiegel. Lemonnier and naturalism. The crucible of the Eighties and Nineties, La Jeune Belgique, La wallonie. Symbolism its high points (Rodenbach, Maeterlinck, Elskamp, etc.). Eekhoud. Verhaeren. The turn of the century and the synthesis of the arts. The new authors (Crommelynck, De Boschère). Changes in the conditions of literary activity in Belgium between 1920 and 1960. History and high tide of the avant-gardes (surrealism, Dadaism), expressionism, the fantastic, marginal literature, committed literature, regionalism. During the interwar period: Manifeste du lundi. Study of some great figures (Baillon, Nougé, Michaux, Ghelderode, Plisnier, Jean Ray, Simenon, Gevers). The Second World War: a turning point. Neoclassicism, "Belgique sauvage", and magical realism. The Sixties: another turning point, "Belgitude", the Walloon manifesto. Some major works (Willems, Vaes, Lilar, Bauchau, Dotremont, Dominique Rolin, and others).

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

Nil

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