French Literature I
Courses Degree in Humanities
In this curricular unit the focus will be placed on romance, and on the role French Culture played in this field as a forerunner and a catalyzer. This unit aims at offering a global, integrated vision of French literature from a thematic, diachronic and poetic standpoint, and it endeavors to conciliate the analysis of some emblematic narratives of the main literary periods between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment with the study of the kind of historic transformation such works reflect or anticipate.
French Literature (From Middle Ages to Eighteen Century)
Arthurian romance
Philosophical tale
Epistolary novel
By the end of the semester the student is expected to be able to:
- Acknowledge and characterize the principal instances and transformations of romance writing of the approached period, in France;
- Relate the fundamental references studied to their underlying cultural and epistemological changes;
- Adequate knowledge, methodologies and devices to the critical exploration of a narrative and the production of an essay.
I- The emergence of romance (12th and 13th centuries)
1. From Latin to romance: a new linguistic and poetic horizon
2. Knights and lovers: wandering as narrative form (Chrétien de Troyes’ “Conte du Graal”)
3. From verse to prose: a narrative looking for completion.
II – Poetics of romance and classic paradigm
1. The controversial status of romance (16th-17th centuries)
2. Classical romance and novel: tradition and innovation (study of La Princesse de Clèves de Madame de Lafayette)
III – The Enlightenment and the transformation of narrative
1. A new ideal of writing
2. The aesthetics of brevity: the philosophical tale (“Candide” by Voltaire)
3. Stretching and disruption: (Guilleragues, “Lettres Portugaises” and Choderlos de Laclos, ”Liaisons Dangereuses”)
Full reading:
CHRETIEN DE TROYES − Le Conte du Graal ou le Roman de Perceval. Ed. bilingue Charles Méla. Paris: Le Livre de Poche, col. «Lettres Gothiques», 1990.
GUILLERAGUES – Lettres Portugaises. Ed. Alain Brunn. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.
LAFAYETTE, Madame de − La Princesse de Clèves. Paris: Folio Classique, 2000.
VOLTAIRE – Candide. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 2011.
Studies:
RIBEIRO, Cristina Almeida; ABREU, Graça; MADUREIRA, Margarida − Literatura Francesa Clássica, Lisboa: Universidade Aberta, 1990.
RUSS, Jacqueline − A aventura do pensamento europeu. Uma história das ideias ocidentais, Lisboa: Terramar, 1997, col. Europa.
TATIN-GOURIER, J.-J. − Lire les Lumières, Paris: Armand Colin, col. Lettres Supérieur, 2005.
ZINK, Michel − Littérature Française du Moyen-Age. Paris: PUF, 2004.
Other resources and tools for literary analysis will be provided 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%).
Students are required to have access to a computer with Internet connection.