French Literature (2020/2021)

Learning outcomes

In the context of the theoretic and critical investigation of French literary studies provided in the two-year master’s degree program, this course aims at developing both historical and methodological competences with a special focus on the literature of Francophone countries and of exiled authors, on diasporic literature, and on the richness of the cultural and linguistic expression that defines such literatures. The course aims to initiate students to an in-depth and critical study of some Franco-phone writers “venus d’ailleurs”, who came from different European and non-European countries and intended to change them radically by means of a new language. Moreover, the professor intends to provide students with all the theoretical and methodological tools for the literary and linguistic analysis of the proposed texts. The lessons will be held in French, in order to improve the students’ linguistic level as well. The courses will consist in lectures and seminars. Remedial courses will be organised as well. At the end of the course, students shall therefore acquire overall knowledge of Francophone literature, along with critical competences and the capacity of applying them to the comparative analysis of texts belonging to different literary genres (poetry, narrative prose, essay, and theatre). Moreover, they will be able to present the topics of the course in French.

Descendre dans la nuit : écritures de la profondeur

*Texts


Leila SLIMANI, Le Pays des autres, Paris, Gallimard, 2020

Jakuta ALIKAVAZOVIC, L’avancée de la nuit, Paris, Editions de l’Olivier, 2017

Lydie SALVAYRE, Marcher jusqu’au soir, Paris, Stock, 2019

Marie NDIAYE, Y penser sans cesse, Paris, L'Arbre vengeur, 2011

H. BAUCHAU, L’enfant bleu, Arles, Actes Sud, 2004

M. FERMINE, Un été surréel, Montréal, Michel Lafon, 2018


** Critical Texts

G. CURRY, Toubab La! Literary Representations of Mixed-Race Characters in the African Diaspora, Cambridge Scholars Pub, Newcastle, 2007.

R. LEYRIS, « Le Pays des autres », de Leïla Slimani : les fracas de l’histoire marocaine », Le Monde, 5 mars 2020.

S. BIKIALO, « Ordre et inquiétude du discours dans le discours littéraire contemporain: Portrait de l’écrivain en animal domestique de Lydie Salvayre », dans L'Analyse du discours : de la théorie à la pratique (dir. A. Kieliszczyk et E. Pachocinska), Varsovie, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2014, pp. 13-28.

W. MOTTE, « Lydie Salvayre's Literature », Fiction Now: The French Novel in the Twenty-First Century, Champaign, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008, pp. 91-110.

J. LAMBERT, Henry Bauchau, une poésie de l'existence, Amay - Bruxelles, L’Arbre à paroles - Midis de la Poésie, 2015

I. GABOLDE, La lumière de l’Enfant bleu, une écoute entre prose et poésie, « Francofonia », n. 42, Henry Bauchau: Voix et vocation de l'écriture (Primavera 2002), pp. 99-114

A.GEFEN, Réparer le monde. La littérature française face au XXIe siècle, Paris, José Corti, 2017

Oral exam, in French, based on the texts analysed during the course. The assessment will be based on the following criteria: quality of oral expression in French, clarity and consistency of the argumentation, completeness of the information and ability to think critically.