31028 - French Literature 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to know a general outline of the history of French literature, and also to read and translate texts from French into Italian. They should also be familiar with some basic strategies of text analysis and able to contextualise texts within their cultural and historical period.

Course contents

Introduction to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French literature – Prof. F. Zanelli

This module aims to introduce first year students to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French culture, civilisation and literature, dealing with two complex and even contradictory epochs, which are far from us in terms of both social customs and mentality. Although the sixteenth century is marked by the advent of humanism and the Renaissance, with their emphasis on ‘high' culture, courtly love and formalist codes of expression, late-Medieval themes – with their emphasis on instincts, violence and a vitalistic celebration of the body – are still very much alive. The seventeenth century, on the other hand, turns his back on the previous century instituting and legitimising a ‘high' literary canon which excludes all those authors who do not abide by the rules of dominant classicism, and who therefore represent a sort of alternative minor canon or anti-canon.  In other words, although this century asserts the primacy of ‘Raison', clarity and order, seventeenth-century culture also reveals a different face – grotesque, bizarre, excessive, transgressive, i.e. baroque, whose traces can be seen in literature, architecture and art. In the first half of the course this vital tension between contrasting cultural attitudes will be explored by analysing texts by authors such as Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, D'Aubigné, Ronsard, Descartes, Corneille, Molière, Racine, La Fontaine and La Rochefoucauld. In the second part of the course, we will focus on the development of female literature at a time where power was vested in the masculine exponents of patriarchal society. Female writing slowly asserted itself against a patriarchal power that looked down on it with suspicion as a product of alterity. As a proof of the marginality of this literary output, one may mention the fact that still in most twentieth-century histories of literature, only one woman poet – Louise Labé – is mentioned. Our course intends to explore a wide choice of women's writings – ranging fromMarguerite de Navarre to Louise Labé, Hélisenne de Crenne, Mesdames des Roches, Nicole Estienne, Mlle de Scudéry, Mme de Sévigné and Mme de Lafayette– in order to delve into recurrent themes such as the relationship between the sexes, marriage, adultery, maternity, access to knowledge.

Reading list:

Primary sources and critical sources (Bachtin, Lefebvre, Butor, Bénichou, Barthes, Brunel, etc.) will be made available to students in a ‘dossier'.

Readings/Bibliography

Reading list:

Primary sources and critical sources (Bachtin, Lefebvre, Butor, Bénichou, Barthes, Brunel, etc.) will be made available to students in a ‘dossier'.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures. Historical and literary approach.

Assessment methods

Written test (only for students who attended the course), followed by an oral exam.

Teaching tools

Some Italian translations of primary sources and further critical works will be made available to students through the "portale docente".

Office hours

See the website of Franca Zanelli Quarantini Piancastelli