Course Descriptions

The romance genre, which arose in the Middle Ages, is one of the most important developments in narrative history. In fact, the concerns of medieval romance are the concerns of much of narrative fiction that we have come to call "novels." Romance, as a literary genre, is characterized by various conventions, motifs, archetypes, and idealisms. We will study these various components of medieval romance in a variety of representative texts which both define the genre and react to it.

Our study will focus on the development of romance, from its beginnings in verse form in the romans d'antiquité (the romances of antiquity), Chrétien de Troyes, and the Tristan stories. We will also look at the mise en prose of romances in the thirteenth century, in the Vulgate Cycle (the Quest of the Holy Grail). Other romances to be studied include the chantefable Aucassin et Nicolette, the Guillaume de Dole (often referred to as the "first Roman de la Rose"), and the "other" Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. We will also take up other issues such as performance; relations between image and text in original manuscripts; variations among different manuscripts of the same work and variations in translations (into modern French and into English). There will be a visit (if possible) to the manuscript section of Butler Library at Columbia University.

Students are not expected to enter the course knowing Old French: for French Program students (and others who may be interested) we will work on this in class and in special sessions prior to our class meeting time. While this course is given in English, students are expected to read and understand modern French.

A complete list of texts to purchase will be furnished prior to December.

Students will do oral presentations and there will be a research paper required.

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Naturalism and its Fictions
In this course we will read fiction mostly by authors of the so-called “Medan group.”  Although naturalist writers stressed their scientific foundations and positivistic attitudes the critics have studied their fiction from a variety of critical perspectives. Bachelard, Freud, Girard, Jung, Lévi-Strauss, and Marx have been the critical models for a number of important essays and books.  However the physiological component of naturalist fiction has been often neglected and this despite Zola’s declaration that the modern novelist “étudie l’organisme humain et social en activité.” In this course we will analyze writings of Zola, the Goncourt brothers, and Maupassant from the physiological point of view in a broader anthropological perspective.  The relatively limited amount of material treated in class ought to allow students to wander in the vast realm of naturalist fiction, in order to prepare research projects (e.g. Paul Alexis, Paul Bonnetain, Henry Céard, Alphonse Daudet, Lucien Descaves, Léon Hennique, Abel Hermant, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Camille Lemonnier, Octave Mirbeau).  All interests and approaches are encouraged (e.g. feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytical, structuralist, semiotic).  Students will present in class their “work-in-progress” and write a term paper on a literary work not discussed in class.

Reading list :

Goncourt, Germinie Lacerteux (1864)
Zola, La Curée (1872)
Zola, Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
Zola, L'Assommoir (1877)
Zola, Nana (1880)
Zola, Pot-Bouille (1882)
Maupassant, Une Vie (1883)
Zola, Le Docteur Pascal (1893)

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Si les poètes, depuis Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Théophile Gauthier ou Gerard de Nerval, ont mêlé compositions romanesques à leurs oeuvres de poètes, la question n’en reste pas moins posée de la spécificité de telles oeuvres par rapport aux conctructions des romanciers proprement dits.  La <<poétique<< donne-t-elle un ton ou une structure particulière aux <<romans de poetès<<

Le cours se concentrera sur deux oeuvres du XXe Siècle:

Anicet ou le panorama, de Louis Aragon
Le Rivage de Syrtes, de Julien Gracq.

On abordera aussi des romans de la littérature dite francophone, Nedjma de Kateb Yacine, et La Lézarde d’Edouard Glissant.

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