OVERVIEW

Paths, paradigms and challenges of the French novel from the 19th century to contemporaneity.

The course aims at offering a critical overview of the routes taken by the French novel from the 19th century to contemporary times, through three major interpretative paradigms: realism and society, memory, and new forms of social and anthropological engagement in contemporary literature.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide students of Literature with a good knowledge of the history of French literature from the 19th century to contemporaneity, with anthological readings in front of text and particular attention to historical and artistic dynamics, as well as to theoretical positions.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching is part of the training course, providing the basis for a comparative reflection of literary history in relation to the history and history of art, through fundamental knowledge for the relationship links.

At the end of the course the student:

1) knows the general lines of literary history,

2) is able to recognize the works of the great authors of French literature

4) knows how to relate the works with the historical era,

5) can distinguish the characteristics of the great literary movements.

6) can define the characteristics of the great literary movements.

PREREQUISITES

The student should have a general geographical vision and history of Europe, should also have a standard level of knowledge of Italian and basic notions of Italian literature.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The first part will concern the "novelists of the real" through the reading of selected excerpts from Balzac, Flaubert, and Céline; the second part will outline the theme of memory as a novelistic device in three authors: Proust, Modiano, and Ernaux. The last part will focus on contemporaneity, on the new forms of "commitment" and on the social and aesthetic challenges that fiction must face in the 21st century: namely, we will take Emmanuel Carrère and Maylis de Kerangal as examples of this paradigm.
The excerpts to be analysed will be included in the handout edited by the lecturer.   

The in-class analysis will - mainly - focus on the following novels:

Honoré de Balzac: Illusioni perdute
Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Viaggio al termine della notte
Marcel Proust, Dalla parte di Swann
Patrick Modiano, Via delle botteghe oscure
Annie Ernaux, Gli Anni
Emmanuel Carrère, Vite che non sono la mia
Maylis de Kerangal, Riparare i viventi

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for attending students:

A handout containing the excerpts analysed during the course, as well as some critical essays, will be made available by the lecturer before the end of the course.

Bibliography for non-attending students:

Michela Landi ( edited by), Letteratura francese. Dall'Ottocento al XXI secolo, Vol. 2, Le Monnier Università, 2021

Sandra Teroni ( ed.), Il romanzo francese del Novecento, Laterza, 2008

A collection of essays edited by the lecturer will be published on the course page

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CHIARA ROLLA (President)

ELISA BRICCO

ROBERTA CAPOTORTI (President)

CHIARA ROLLA

ELISA BRICCO (President Substitute)

LESSONS

Class schedule

FRENCH LITERATURE AND CULTURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Colloquium and seminar

ASSESSMENT METHODS

At the end of the course the student:
1) knows the general lines of literary history,
2) is able to recognize the works of the great authors of French literature
4) knows how to relate the works with the historical era,
5) can distinguish the characteristics of the great literary movements.
6) knows how to define the characteristics of the great literary movements.

Exam schedule