The objective of this course is to study, in a literary history context, the place and function of women in Parisian literary life between 1880 and 1950, as well as their own writings on women and the literary world. This study is done by reading autobiographical accounts, memoirs and essays, in a specific historical context, in order to permit a reflection on the role and the engagement of women in intellectual life, and to define their place in literary history.
Prerequisites:
Prior coursework in literature
Method of presentation:
Lectures, in-class presentations by students, library research, several site visits.
Required work and form of assessment:
Attendance and class participation (20%); short tests, preparation and research (20%); mid-term exam (20%); 15-minute class presentation of individual research based on a topic chosen with the instructor from a list of suggestions (20%), 15-page research paper on one female author who played a significant role in French literary life between 1880 and 1950, chosen with the instructor from a list of suggestions (20%).
Students conduct individual research in libraries (municipal libraries, the Bibliothèque Nationale Française (BNF) François Mitterand, and the Marguerite Durand library) to prepare for tests, an in-class presentation related to one of the course’s readings, and a research paper.
content:
Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Biography of Rachilde, the Mercure de France and left bank literature
Reading: Rachilde, Portraits d’hommes, Alfred Vallette and Willy
Research: Develop a list of 19th and 20th century dictionaries
Session 3: The fin-de-siècle period, décadents, androgyne
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 9-34
Research: In the various dictionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries, look up definitions of “writer” and
“author” (distribution of dictionaries in class)
Session 4: Rachilde in Paris, Monsieur Vénus, Rachilde and Vallette meet
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 35-58
Research: Research the feminine genre of the substantives “writer” and “author”
Choice of in-class presentation topics
Session 5: La Marquise de Sade
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 59-84
Research: Develop a list of the “Histories of literature of the 19th and 20th centuries”
Session 6: Colette in Paris, Willy, the Claudine series
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 7-48
Research: Study the number and the place of women in the “Histories of literature of the 19th and 20th centuries” (distribution of literary histories in class)
Session 7: The Willy-Colette couple, Claudine, Polaire
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 49-93
Session 8: Colette after Willy
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 95-137
Session 9: What Colette did not say
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 139-190
Session 10: The Mercure de France and the NRF in 1915 and the writers
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 33-63
Session 11: Women and the war, the Maison des Amis des Livres
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 73-117
Session 12: Mid-term exam
Session 13: Objective and functioning of the bookstore, the “great men”
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 119-152
Session 14: Americans in Paris, Sylvia Beach, Hemingway, Georges Antheil, etc.
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 153-210
Session 15: Joyce’s Ulysses and Sylvia Beach’s Ulysse and Adrienne Monnier
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 219-255
Session 16: Les Potassons, Francis Poulenc, Monnier, Linossier and the surrealists
Readings: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 65-72, and Raymonde Linossier, Bibi-la-bibiste
Session 17: Americans in Paris (continuation)
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 9-50
Session 18: The Amazon and Remy de Gourmont
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 51-90
Session 19: The salons, relationships with writers
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 91-137
Session 20: Sapphism, Colette
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 141-185
Research paper due
Session 21: History of the publication
Reading: Catherine Pozzi, Agnès
Session 22: Pozzi and Paul Valéry, the journal of Catherine Pozzi, correspondence with Rilke
Reading: Catherine Pozzi, Agnès
Session 23: Update on research projects and conclusion of the course
List of suggestions for in-class presentations:
Rachilde
Bibiography of Rachilde
Creation of Mercure de France
Le Mercure de France, journal
Le Mercure de France, publishing house
Fin-de-siècle or décadent literature
Paul Léautaud
Portrayals of men :
Monsieur Vénus
La Marquise de Sade
Colette
Biography of Colette
Claudine à l’école, Claudine à Paris, the Claudine series
Colette and Willy
Choice of small texts: les Vrilles de la vigne
La Vagabonde, Colette and the theater
Le pur et l’impur
Raymonde Linossier, Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach
Paul Valéry, Léon-Paul Fargue, Valery Larbaud, Rilke, James Joyce’s Ulysses and Sylvia Beach’s Ulysse
and Adrienne Monnier, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Paul Claudel, Jules Romains, André Gide. Article of Adrienne Monnier on Colette; on the Amies des Livres
Natalie Barney
Pensées and Nouvelles pensées de l’amazone
Aventures de l’esprit
Remy de Gourmont, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, André Rouveyre, Renée Vivien
List of suggestions for research paper:
Study of an author not discussed in class; general study or one of their works
The salons: Mme Aurel, Mme Bulteau, Mme Caillavet
Americans in Paris: Sylvia Beach, Gertrud Stein, Florence Gould, Bryher and H. D., Janet Flanner
American and English editors in Paris: Nancy Cunard; the journals: Henry Church
Around Colette: Germaine Beaumont, Marguerite Moreno, Polaire
Around N. C. Barney: Liane de Pougy, Renée Vivien
Marie de Régnier (Gérard d'Houville) Marguerite Audoux
Louise Lara
Anna de Noailles
Gyp
Simone de Beauvoir (education and childhood: the beginning of Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée) Mireille Havet
Marthe Bibesco
La garçonne of Victor Marguerite
Required readings:
Barney, Natalie. Traits et portraits. Paris: Mercure de France, 1963.
Colette, Mes apprentissages. Paris: Hachette Livre, Livre de poche, n° 29998, 2004.
Linossier, Raymonde. Bibi-la-bibiste. (photocopie)
Monnier, Adrienne. Rue de l’Odéon. Paris: Bibliothèque Albin Michel, n° 30, 1989.
Pozzi, Catherine. Agnès. Orléans, Ontario: Minos, La Différence, 2002.
Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe. Paris: Editions de France, 1928 and excerpts from Portraits d’hommes (photocopies)
The objective of this course is to study, in a literary history context, the place and function of women in Parisian literary life between 1880 and 1950, as well as their own writings on women and the literary world. This study is done by reading autobiographical accounts, memoirs and essays, in a specific historical context, in order to permit a reflection on the role and the engagement of women in intellectual life, and to define their place in literary history.
Prior coursework in literature
Lectures, in-class presentations by students, library research, several site visits.
Attendance and class participation (20%); short tests, preparation and research (20%); mid-term exam (20%); 15-minute class presentation of individual research based on a topic chosen with the instructor from a list of suggestions (20%), 15-page research paper on one female author who played a significant role in French literary life between 1880 and 1950, chosen with the instructor from a list of suggestions (20%).
Students conduct individual research in libraries (municipal libraries, the Bibliothèque Nationale Française (BNF) François Mitterand, and the Marguerite Durand library) to prepare for tests, an in-class presentation related to one of the course’s readings, and a research paper.
Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Biography of Rachilde, the Mercure de France and left bank literature
Reading: Rachilde, Portraits d’hommes, Alfred Vallette and Willy
Research: Develop a list of 19th and 20th century dictionaries
Session 3: The fin-de-siècle period, décadents, androgyne
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 9-34
Research: In the various dictionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries, look up definitions of “writer” and
“author” (distribution of dictionaries in class)
Session 4: Rachilde in Paris, Monsieur Vénus, Rachilde and Vallette meet
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 35-58
Research: Research the feminine genre of the substantives “writer” and “author”
Choice of in-class presentation topics
Session 5: La Marquise de Sade
Reading: Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, pp. 59-84
Research: Develop a list of the “Histories of literature of the 19th and 20th centuries”
Session 6: Colette in Paris, Willy, the Claudine series
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 7-48
Research: Study the number and the place of women in the “Histories of literature of the 19th and 20th centuries” (distribution of literary histories in class)
Session 7: The Willy-Colette couple, Claudine, Polaire
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 49-93
Session 8: Colette after Willy
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 95-137
Session 9: What Colette did not say
Reading: Colette, Mes apprentissages, pp. 139-190
Session 10: The Mercure de France and the NRF in 1915 and the writers
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 33-63
Session 11: Women and the war, the Maison des Amis des Livres
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 73-117
Session 12: Mid-term exam
Session 13: Objective and functioning of the bookstore, the “great men”
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 119-152
Session 14: Americans in Paris, Sylvia Beach, Hemingway, Georges Antheil, etc.
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 153-210
Session 15: Joyce’s Ulysses and Sylvia Beach’s Ulysse and Adrienne Monnier
Reading: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 219-255
Session 16: Les Potassons, Francis Poulenc, Monnier, Linossier and the surrealists
Readings: Adrienne Monnier, Rue de l’Odéon, pp. 65-72, and Raymonde Linossier, Bibi-la-bibiste
Session 17: Americans in Paris (continuation)
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 9-50
Session 18: The Amazon and Remy de Gourmont
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 51-90
Session 19: The salons, relationships with writers
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 91-137
Session 20: Sapphism, Colette
Reading: Natalie Barney, Traits et portraits, pp. 141-185
Research paper due
Session 21: History of the publication
Reading: Catherine Pozzi, Agnès
Session 22: Pozzi and Paul Valéry, the journal of Catherine Pozzi, correspondence with Rilke
Reading: Catherine Pozzi, Agnès
Session 23: Update on research projects and conclusion of the course
List of suggestions for in-class presentations:
Rachilde
Bibiography of Rachilde
Creation of Mercure de France
Le Mercure de France, journal
Le Mercure de France, publishing house
Fin-de-siècle or décadent literature
Paul Léautaud
Portrayals of men :
Monsieur Vénus
La Marquise de Sade
Colette
Biography of Colette
Claudine à l’école, Claudine à Paris, the Claudine series
Colette and Willy
Choice of small texts: les Vrilles de la vigne
La Vagabonde, Colette and the theater
Le pur et l’impur
Raymonde Linossier, Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach
Paul Valéry, Léon-Paul Fargue, Valery Larbaud, Rilke, James Joyce’s Ulysses and Sylvia Beach’s Ulysse
and Adrienne Monnier, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Paul Claudel, Jules Romains, André Gide. Article of Adrienne Monnier on Colette; on the Amies des Livres
Natalie Barney
Pensées and Nouvelles pensées de l’amazone
Aventures de l’esprit
Remy de Gourmont, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, André Rouveyre, Renée Vivien
List of suggestions for research paper:
Study of an author not discussed in class; general study or one of their works
The salons: Mme Aurel, Mme Bulteau, Mme Caillavet
Americans in Paris: Sylvia Beach, Gertrud Stein, Florence Gould, Bryher and H. D., Janet Flanner
American and English editors in Paris: Nancy Cunard; the journals: Henry Church
Around Colette: Germaine Beaumont, Marguerite Moreno, Polaire
Around N. C. Barney: Liane de Pougy, Renée Vivien
Marie de Régnier (Gérard d'Houville) Marguerite Audoux
Louise Lara
Anna de Noailles
Gyp
Simone de Beauvoir (education and childhood: the beginning of Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée) Mireille Havet
Marthe Bibesco
La garçonne of Victor Marguerite
Barney, Natalie. Traits et portraits. Paris: Mercure de France, 1963.
Colette, Mes apprentissages. Paris: Hachette Livre, Livre de poche, n° 29998, 2004.
Linossier, Raymonde. Bibi-la-bibiste. (photocopie)
Monnier, Adrienne. Rue de l’Odéon. Paris: Bibliothèque Albin Michel, n° 30, 1989.
Pozzi, Catherine. Agnès. Orléans, Ontario: Minos, La Différence, 2002.
Rachilde, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe. Paris: Editions de France, 1928 and excerpts from Portraits d’hommes (photocopies)