This course is designed for students who have never taken a course in literature. It will allow them to understand and interpret texts as linguistic objects and to discover the principle characteristics that define different literary genres (poetry, novels, plays). By the end of this course students will learn different ways of reading texts in order to get a deep understanding of the material; they will be comfortable with literary analytical terminology; and they will improve their written and oral expression through literary analysis.
Method of presentation:
Lecture, discussion, student presentations, films, field study activities
Required work and form of assessment:
Attendance and participation (20%), preparation for each class (10%), mid-term exam (20%), three written reports on specific texts (30%), and final exam (20%).
content:
1. Introduction
What is textual analysis?
Major principles and theories of communication.
Text: Georges Pérec, Penser /classer
2. Reference points in a text - Meanings of a text
The different forms of text : descriptive, narrative, explicative, argumentative, imperative
Text: Blaise Cendrars, D’outremer à Indigo
3. Elements of enunciation - Lexical networks
Narrative and discourse
Lexical field, Complementarity/opposition
Text:
* Mme de Sévigné, Lettre
* Viewing of « La vie et rien d’autre, » Bertrand Tavernier, 1988.
* Les Paysans, Honoré de Balzac
* « Le Belle Dorothée » in Petits poèmes en prose, Charles Baudelaire
4. Signs and language
signifié and signifiant
denotation /connotation
Text: Honoré d’Urfé, L’Astrée
5. Principle forms of style
6. Poetry
Versification
Text: « Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes répandre » Louise Labé, sonnets
7. Voicing
Text: « Avenue du Main », Max Jacob, Les œuvres burlesques et mystiques de
Frère Matotel, 1911
8. Images of a poem: similes and metaphores
Text: Les yeux d’Elsa, Louis Aragon
9. Form
10. Text: 1st analyse de texte is due
11. Mid-term exam
12. The Novel
Characters of a novel, function and characteristics
Text: Deux cavaliers de l’orage, Jean Giono
13. Narrator and focus
Text: Germinal, Emile Zola
14. Le ryhthm and development of a narrative
Text: Une vie, Guy de Maupassant,
15. Analysis of a work by Georges Sand
Text: « La petite Fadette »
16. Text: 2nd analyse de texte is due
17. Theatre
Action and characters of theatre
Text: « Antigone » Jean Anouilh,
18. Double enunciation
Text: Study of monologues
19. Double enunciation
Text: Study of monologues, stage whispers
20. Comedy
Study of a play by Feydeau
Text: Le dindon
21. Text: 3rd analyse de texte is due
Required readings:
Excerpts from :
Anouilh, Jean. Antigone. La table ronde, 1993.
Aragon, Louis. Les yeux d’Elsa. 1942.
Balzac, Honoré de. Les Paysans. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1999
Baudelaire, Charles. « Le Belle Dorothée » in Petits poèmes en prose. 1862.
Cendrars, Blaise. D’Outremer à Indigo. Gallimard, 1940.
Feydeau, Georges. Le dindon. Gallimard, 2001.
Giono, Jean. Deux cavaliers de l’orage. Gallimard, 1965.
Labé, Louise. « Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes répandre » in Sonnets. 1555.
Maupassant, Guy de. Une vie. Gallimard, 1999.
Pérec, Georges. Penser/classer. Hachette, collection "Textes du XXe siècle," 1985.
Sand, Georges. La petite fadette. Gallimard, 2004.
Sévigné, Madame de. Lettres choisies. Gallimard, 1988.
This course is designed for students who have never taken a course in literature. It will allow them to understand and interpret texts as linguistic objects and to discover the principle characteristics that define different literary genres (poetry, novels, plays). By the end of this course students will learn different ways of reading texts in order to get a deep understanding of the material; they will be comfortable with literary analytical terminology; and they will improve their written and oral expression through literary analysis.
Lecture, discussion, student presentations, films, field study activities
Attendance and participation (20%), preparation for each class (10%), mid-term exam (20%), three written reports on specific texts (30%), and final exam (20%).
1. Introduction
What is textual analysis?
Major principles and theories of communication.
Text: Georges Pérec, Penser /classer
2. Reference points in a text - Meanings of a text
The different forms of text : descriptive, narrative, explicative, argumentative, imperative
Text: Blaise Cendrars, D’outremer à Indigo
3. Elements of enunciation - Lexical networks
Narrative and discourse
Lexical field, Complementarity/opposition
Text:
* Mme de Sévigné, Lettre
* Viewing of « La vie et rien d’autre, » Bertrand Tavernier, 1988.
* Les Paysans, Honoré de Balzac
* « Le Belle Dorothée » in Petits poèmes en prose, Charles Baudelaire
4. Signs and language
signifié and signifiant
denotation /connotation
Text: Honoré d’Urfé, L’Astrée
5. Principle forms of style
6. Poetry
Versification
Text: « Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes répandre » Louise Labé, sonnets
7. Voicing
Text: « Avenue du Main », Max Jacob, Les œuvres burlesques et mystiques de
Frère Matotel, 1911
8. Images of a poem: similes and metaphores
Text: Les yeux d’Elsa, Louis Aragon
9. Form
10. Text: 1st analyse de texte is due
11. Mid-term exam
12. The Novel
Characters of a novel, function and characteristics
Text: Deux cavaliers de l’orage, Jean Giono
13. Narrator and focus
Text: Germinal, Emile Zola
14. Le ryhthm and development of a narrative
Text: Une vie, Guy de Maupassant,
15. Analysis of a work by Georges Sand
Text: « La petite Fadette »
16. Text: 2nd analyse de texte is due
17. Theatre
Action and characters of theatre
Text: « Antigone » Jean Anouilh,
18. Double enunciation
Text: Study of monologues
19. Double enunciation
Text: Study of monologues, stage whispers
20. Comedy
Study of a play by Feydeau
Text: Le dindon
21. Text: 3rd analyse de texte is due
Excerpts from :
Anouilh, Jean. Antigone. La table ronde, 1993.
Aragon, Louis. Les yeux d’Elsa. 1942.
Balzac, Honoré de. Les Paysans. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1999
Baudelaire, Charles. « Le Belle Dorothée » in Petits poèmes en prose. 1862.
Cendrars, Blaise. D’Outremer à Indigo. Gallimard, 1940.
Feydeau, Georges. Le dindon. Gallimard, 2001.
Giono, Jean. Deux cavaliers de l’orage. Gallimard, 1965.
Labé, Louise. « Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes répandre » in Sonnets. 1555.
Maupassant, Guy de. Une vie. Gallimard, 1999.
Pérec, Georges. Penser/classer. Hachette, collection "Textes du XXe siècle," 1985.
Sand, Georges. La petite fadette. Gallimard, 2004.
Sévigné, Madame de. Lettres choisies. Gallimard, 1988.
Urfé, Honoré d’. Astrée. 1607.
Zola, Emile. Germinal. Gallimard, 1999.