French Artistic and Cultural History
Courses Degree in Humanities
The course, sub-titled ‘Art and Poetry from Romanticism to the Avant-gardes of the 20th century’, offers an overview of French cultural and artistic history from Romanticism to Surrealism. Opting for a comparative methodology, it will focus on the relationship between the visual arts and poetry, through the most striking aesthetic and literary movements of the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the first quarter of the 20th century. The study of selected poems by some Romantic authors and the works of Baudelaire and Apollinaire will be articulated with a reflection on the concepts of rupture, modernity, and avant-garde based on the theoretical production of the authors themselves.
French Literature
Poetry
Romanticism
Symbolism
Surrealism
Avant-garde
At the end of this course unit students should be able to:
- identify the aesthetic movements and their key moments in European and French culture from the first half of the 19th century to the end of the first quarter of the 20th century
- understand the concept of “avant-garde”
- understand the ongoing dialogue between literature and art, history and society through the works on offer
- critically analyse literary, metaliterary and pictorial documents, using a comparative methodology and appropriate terminology
ART AND POETRY FROM ROMANTICISM TO THE AVANT-GARDES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
1. Romanticism
1.1 Historical context and fundamental principles
1.2 Romantic poetry, from Lamartine to Nerval
2. Baudelaire and Symbolism
2.1 A new poetry
2.2 Baudelaire’s reflection on art
3. Art and the Avant-Garde: Apollinaire
3.1. Apollinaire's “esprit nouveau”
3.2 Alcools (1913) and Calligrammes (1918): poetic experimentation and visual poetry
Works:
APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume − Alcools. Choix de poèmes. Paris: Larousse, 1970 (ou outra edição em "Livre de Poche")
BAUDELAIRE, Charles − Les Fleurs du Mal et autres poèmes. Paris: Flammarion, 1981 (ou outra edição em "Livre de Poche")
BAUDELAIRE, Charles − Ecrits sur l’art. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1999.
BAUDELAIRE, Charles − Le spleen de Paris : petits poèmes en prose. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2006
Translations:
APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume − Mais Novembro do que Setembro. Trad. Maria Gariela Llansol, Lisboa, Assírio e Alvim (obra que compila os títulos Álcoois, Bestiário e Vitam Impendere Amori).
APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume – O século das nuvens. Versões de Jorge Sousa Braga. Lisboa: Assírio e Alvim, 2007.
BAUDELAIRE, Charles − As Flores do Mal − Trad. João Moita. Prefácio de Paul Valéry. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água, 2020. (edição bilingue)
Poetas franceses do século XIX. Org. e trad. José Lino Grünewald. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Nova Fronteira, 1991. (edição bilingue)
Studies:
COMPAGNON, Antoine − Les cinq paradoxes de la modernité. Paris: Seuil, 1990.
MONTEIRO, Ofélia ; OLIVEIRA, Cristina Cordeiro − Literatura Francesa Moderna e Contemporânea. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta, 1991 (capítulos disponibilizados na UC)
Other resources will be made available and / or advised throughout the semester.
E-learning
Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a final digital test, Global e-folio (e-folio G) at the end of the semester (60%). In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final exam (100%).