LT0033 - FRENCH LITERATURE

courses

ID:

LT0033

Duration (hours):

63

CFU:

SSD:

LETTERATURA FRANCESE

Located in:

PESCARA

Url:

Course Details:

HUMANITIES/LETTERE CLASSICHE Year: 1

Course Details:

HUMANITIES/LINGUAGGI DELLA MUSICA, DELLO SPETTACOLO E DEI MEDIA Year: 1

Course Details:

HUMANITIES/STORIA Year: 1

Year:

2025

Course Catalogue:

https://unich.coursecatalogue.cineca.it/af/2025?co...

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (01/03/2026 - 31/05/2026)

Course Objectives

- Acquire an overview of the evolution of French literature from the 18th to the 19th century- Understand the relationships between history, society, and literary production- Be able to contextualize authors and texts within their respective literary movements- Build a critical and historiographical vocabulary useful for literary analysis- Acquire skills in critical reading and textual analysis- Understand the historical, philosophical, and literary context of the work- Recognize the importance of Rousseau in the birth of modern subjectivity- Develop interpretative autonomy when approaching a complex text

Course Prerequisites

- Basic knowledge of European literature- At least B1 level of French- Having passed the French Literature I exam

Teaching Methods

- Lectures with multimedia support- Guided reading in the original language- Shared analysis in the classroom- Possible ongoing tests to spark group discussions

Assessment Methods

– Oral exam on historical content, literary movements, and authors analyzed in class.– Possible in-progress exam during class.

Texts

Module 1:
1) Textbook of the history of French literature from 1715 to 1870. Recommended: Pierre BRUNEL, History of French Literature, edited by G. Bogliolo (Volume I, Part III, pp. 307-408 and Volume II, Part I, pp. 5-204), Rapallo, Cideb, 1999. Other literary histories are also accepted, provided they comprehensively cover the following topics:
Illuminismo (Lumières) – ca. 1715–1789; Context: Age of Enlightenment, rationalism, criticism of religion and monarchy, faith in progress and science. Authors to study: Voltaire – Candide; Montesquieu; Denis Diderot; d’Alembert and Jean-Jacques; Rousseau, a bridge between the Enlightenment and pre-Romanticism.
Pre-Romanticism and Sensibility – ca. 1770–1800; Context: Transition to Romanticism, emphasis on sentiment, "genius," nature, the suffering individual. Author to study: Chateaubriand.
Romanticism – ca. 1800–1850; Context: Reaction to Enlightenment rationalism, exaltation of passion, nature, the self, the sublime, and the medieval past. Authors to study: Victor Hugo; Alphonse de Lamartine; Alfred de Vigny; Alfred de Musset; Gérard de Nerval; George Sand.
Realism – ca. 1830–1870; Context: Objective observation of reality, attention to everyday life, society, and the psychology of characters. Authors to study: Honoré de Balzac; Stendhal and Gustave Flaubert.
Naturalism (precursors) – ca. 1865–1870; Context: Early stages of Naturalism, which would fully develop after 1870. Authors to study: Émile Zola.

2) Gérard de Nerval, Les Chimères (excerpts will be provided in class and uploaded to the Moodle platform. Free text available at: http://parolesdesjours.free.fr/chimeres.pdf)

Module 2:
3) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (full text available free of charge at https://ebooks-bnr.com/ebooks/pdf4/rousseau_reveries_promeneur_solitaire.pdf)
Recommended readings for non-attending students:
- Jean Starobinski, La transparency et l’obstacle, Paris, Gallimard, 1976
- Philippe Lejeune, Le pacte autobiographique, Paris, Seuil, 1975
- Benedetta Craveri, La civiltà della conversazione, Milan, Adelphi, 2001

The course is divided into two modules: the first provides a historical introduction to literature from 1715 to 1870. The second offers an in-depth exploration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's final work, "The Rêveries of the Solitary Promenade."
Module 1: French Literary History (1715–1870) – 3 creditsThis module provides a historical introduction to French literature from 1715 (the death of Louis XIV) to the end of the Second Empire in 1870. The major literary and cultural movements of the Age of Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Realism will be analyzed, with attention to the political, philosophical, and social transformations that accompanied them.Topics covered: The Enlightenment: Encyclopedism, Reason, Progress; Pre-Romanticism and Sensibility: Rousseau and His Epigones; Romanticism and Subjectivity: George Sand, Hugo, Musset, Nerval; Realism and Naturalism: Balzac, Flaubert, Zola. The reading and analysis of excerpts from "Les Chimères" by Gérard de Nerval will also be offered (free text available at: http://parolesdesjours.free.fr/chimeres.pdf).
Module 2: Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire" – 3 creditsThis module offers an in-depth exploration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's final work, "Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire," a hybrid text between autobiography, philosophical reflection, and lyrical meditation. Through the analysis of the ten "reveries," the themes of memory, solitude, nature, the relationship between the individual and society, as well as the role of writing in the construction of the self, will be explored.Topics covered: The fragmentary structure and essayistic form of the text; The concept of solitude as an existential and spiritual condition; Nature and sensibility: aesthetics and experience; Identity and the Writing of the Self; Rousseau and Pre-Romantic Thought

Course Language

French and Italian (with support in Italian)

More information

Le lezioni si terranno in presenza; tuttavia, sarà garantito il collegamento online per facilitare il cambio di sede degli studenti che seguono l’insegnamento in mutuazione dal campus di Chieti.