French 332: Approaches to Poetry and Fiction

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N. Russell – French 332

French 332: Approaches to Poetry and Fiction

Fall 2016 / Mon & Wed 2-3:15 / Merrill 316

Instructor: Nicolas RussellOffice: Curtin 788Email: Office Hours:Mon & Wed 1-1:45pm and by appointment

Course Description

The objective of this course is to introduce students to different types of French texts (poems, a play, an autobiographical text, and two novels). We will focus on reading strategies and basic techniques of literary analysis. The course will also provide an introduction to French literary and cultural history. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify the main literary genres and to read and analyze texts in French.

Required Texts

Ernaux, Annie, Journal du dehors (Paris: Gallimard, 1995) ISBN: 978-2070392827

Molière, Le Tartuffe (Ed. Bernard Combeaud, Paris : Hachette Livre, 2005)ISBN: 978-2011691781

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses(Paris: Larousse, 2011) ISBN: 978-2035859211

Balzac, Honoré de, Le Colonel Chabert(Ed. Patrick Berthier, Paris : Gallimard « Folio classique », 1999)
ISBN: 978-2-07-041118-4

Grade Breakdown

Presence and Participation15%

Weekly Homework Assignments (forum on D2L)20%

Leading Class Discussion (once during the semester)10%

Three Written Assignments30%

Final Exam25%

Grade Distribution

A+100-97B+89-87C+79-77D+69-67F59-0
A96-93B86-83C76-73D66-63
A-92-90B-82-80C-72-70D-62-60

Course Description

Work Load

In this course, you can expect to spend on a weekly basis: 2.5 hours in class participating in lecture/discussion, leading class discussion, and between 6-9 hours per week at home on preparing for class (reading, preparing various homework assignments), writing essays, studying for exams. In all you will have spent an average amount of roughly 148 hours over the course of the semester on this course.

Attendance and participation:

A high level of participation is expected of all students in class and you will be expected to check your email daily and access the course D2L site on a regular basis. Please come prepared to discuss the material for each day. Since we will often work in pairs and groups (to provide everyone as many opportunities as possible to speak and interact), it is important that we focus on the activities and assist one another fully in accomplishing the assigned tasks. Regular attendance is required. After the first absence, any unexcused absence will lower the final attendance grade by 10%. While you are physically in the classroom (this includes before and after class) absolutely no use of cell phones or other handheld devices is allowed (unless we have a class emergency or need to call technology services) – no texting or tapping (even to look up a word in a dictionary app) – any student not complying with this policy may be marked absent.

Leading Class Discussion

During the semester, each student will lead part of our class discussion (6-7 minutes) on one aspect of the reading for that day. You will choose a day to lead discussion ahead of time.

Written Assignments

You will have three written assignments to complete of different types and lengths: an analysis of a poem
(2 pages), an explication/detailed commentary of a passage from a dramatic text(2-3 pages), and an analytical paper defending a thesis (3-4 pages).

Homework assignments: Homework will take the form of written responses to our study questions (as mentioned above). You will write a 200-300 word response to one question about once a week, either for the Tuesday class or the Thursday class, and you will post it on our D2L discussion forum. In order to count, responses must be submitted to the discussion board by 8am on the day of the class for which they were assigned. The forum will no longer accept posts after 8am. If other students have posted a response before you, you should read their response before you write yours. You can respond to a classmate’s submission or go in a different direction, but in either case you should add something new to the discussion. The goal of the homework assignment is to have you practice your written French throughout the semester. With this in mind, your homework assignments will be graded on both language and content (as will be the case for your papers). Your posts should be based on your attentive reading of the text. I encourage you to quote the text to illustrate your argument.

In this course, we will focus on several of UWM’s Shared Learning Goals.

–To develop Effective Communication Skills, we will engage in unrehearsed and substantive conversations about the content of the course, using connected sentences that display mastery of past, present, and future time frames. You will organize and lead a short discussion on the reading for one class session. You will write weekly response papers. And you will write several expositoryessays on the texts we will read for class.

– In class discussion and in the writing assignments for the course, we will focus on Critical Thinking, developing evidence based, logical analyses of the literary, historical, linguistic, and esthetic dimensions of the course texts.

–The course readings and lectures will provide an introduction to four centuries of French literature and cultural history, which will help to develop yourKnowledge of HumanCultures. Through reflection and discussion of the varieties of human experience the course readings address (social, political, personal, interpersonal) and through an appreciation for the diversity of human experience both in its historical dimension and in the contemporary world, we will also further developIntercultural Knowledge and Competence.

Final Exam

On the final exam, you will be asked to identify or define a number of authors, genres, literary concepts, and/or characters. You will also write one or more short essays in response to questions covering the readings from the semester.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to comply fully with UWM’s policies on academic honesty (for guidelines see

University Policies

Please see the following link for other UWM course policies:

Calendrier

D2L = disponible sur D2L

Semaine 1

Mercredi, 7 septembreIntroduction

Annie Ernaux, Journal du dehors, p. 7-37
«Strategies for Successful Reading» D2L

Semaine 2

Lundi, 12 septembreAnnie Ernaux, Journal du dehors, p. 37-68

Mercredi, 14 septembreAnnie Ernaux, Journal du dehors, p. 69-107

Semaine 3

Lundi, 19septembreCharles Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris, «Enivrez-vous», «Les Fenêtres» D2L
Nathaniel Wing, «Exile fromWithin, Exile fromWithout», p. 737-43 D2L

Mercredi, 21 septembreBaudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris,«Un hémisphère dans une chevelure»D2L
Les Fleurs du mal, «La Chevelure» D2L

Semaine 4

Lundi, 26septembreBaudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, «Au lecteur», «Le Spleen», «Correspondances», «Élévation» D2L

Mercredi, 28septembreAndré Breton, «L’Union libre», «La Mort rose» D2L
Michel Beaujour, «FromText to Performance», p. 866-71 D2L

Semaine 5

Lundi, 3 octobreJacques Prévert, «Chez la fleuriste», «Barbara» D2L

Mercredi, 5octobreMolière, Le Tartuffe, Acte I, p. 25-48
Gérard Defaux, «The Comic and ItsLimits», p. 334-40 D2L

Semaine 6

Lundi, 10octobreMolière, Le Tartuffe, Acte II, p. 49-78
Travail Ecrit 1: Analyse d’un poème

Mercredi, 12octobreMolière, Le Tartuffe, Acte III, p. 79-102

Semaine 7

Lundi, 17octobreMolière, Le Tartuffe, Acte IV, p. 103-26

Mercredi, 19octobreMolière, Le Tartuffe, Acte V, p. 127-48

Semaine 8

Lundi, 24octobreTartuffe de Molière: Mise en scène de Jacques Charon(dvd)
Disponible à Golda Meir Library Reserve

Mercredi, 26octobreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, Avertissement et Préface

Semaine 9

Lundi, 31octobreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, lettres 1-6
Peter Brooks, «Words and Things», p. 537-43 D2L

Mercredi, 2 novembreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, lettres 7-10
Travail Écrit 2: Explication de texte (une scène dramatique)

Semaine 10

Lundi, 7novembreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, lettres 20,24,26,44, 47, 96, 100, 110

Mercredi, 9novembreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, lettres125,127, 129 &131, 138, 140-42

Semaine 11

Lundi, 14novembreLaclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, lettres 145, 151-53, 155, 158-59,162-63, 173, 175

Mercredi, 16novembreDangerous Liaisons, film de Steven Frears, 1993 (avec Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, UmaThurman et Keanu Reeves)
Disponible à Golda Meir Library Reserve

Semaine 12

Lundi, 21novembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 39-53 ln. 25

Mercredi, 23novembreThanksgiving – L’Action de grâce

Semaine 13

Lundi, 28 novembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 53-74 ln. 20p. 74-87 ln. 7

Mercredi, 30 novembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 87-111 ln. 21

Semaine 14

Lundi, 5 décembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 111-36 ln. 17

Mercredi, 7 décembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 136-54 ln. 13

Semaine 15

Lundi, 12 décembreBalzac, Le Colonel Chabert, p. 154-67

Mercredi, 14 décembreLe Colonel Chabert, film de Yves Angelo, 1994
(avec Fanny Ardant,Gérard Depardieu et Fabrice Luchini)
Travail Écrit 3: Dissertation

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Examen Final