French – French Literature

 

 Unique Programs 

 

Catering to Francophones and to Allophones who read, write and speak French well, the proposed B.A. and B.A. hon. degree programs in French literature will be offered entirely and only in French.

Spanning authors from Rabelais to Tremblay, the proposed programs will be distinguished by their focus on the French literary tradition as a whole and by their historical approach to the subject. Students will read primary texts from every period of French literature, in succession, from the Renaissance to the present. Texts have been selected according to the influence they have exercised on the traditions of French literature, and will be studied with particular attention to innovations in genre, form, and literary technique.

Program coursework and research materials will integrate extensive coverage of methods and theoretical constructs, while the curriculum’s presentation of primary materials along historical lines will ensure a deep understanding of the French-language literary tradition.

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 Bright Prospects 

 

The proposed programs have been developed in consultation with faculty responsible for graduate admissions at some of the world’s top universities. They are specially designed to help students gain admission to M.A. programs requiring comprehensive reading at the undergraduate level.

Students will also be well prepared for further studies in related and interdisciplinary academic fields, in teaching or in law.

For students seeking to enter the job market directly, the HDDP’s French programs will provide a superior credential for highly skilled positions in the public and private sectors in fields such as writing, communication, editing, publishing, and journalism.

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 More Details 

 

More detailed information, including course descriptions, weekly programs, assignments, and learning outcomes, is provided in the Course Catalogue.

Following the overview of program courses, a full list of the primary readings comprising the honours specialization has been included.

 

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The Honours Degree Program in French Literature 

 

First Year

FRA 1.1 La Prose renaissante 

FRA 1.2 La Poésie renaissante 

FRA 1.3 Des guerres d’Italie à la fondation de l’Académie française 

FRA 1.4 L’Âge héroïque et le baroque 

FRA 1.5 Le Roman baroque 

 

 

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Second Year

FRA 2.1 L'Âge classique 

FRA 2.2 Ambiguïtés du classicisme 

FRA 2.3 Le Roman du dix-huitième siècle 

FRA 2.4 Des libertins aux Lumières 

FRA 2.5 Fiction et raison chez les Philosophes 

 

 

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Third Year

FRA 3.1 Le Romantisme lyrique et dramatique 

FRA 3.2 Du Romantisme au Réalisme 

FRA 3.3 Du réalisme au naturalisme 

FRA 3.4 Le Roman d’apprentissage I 

FRA 3.5 Le Roman d’apprentissage II 

 

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Fourth Year

FRA 4.1 La Poésie moderne 

FRA 4.2 Le Théâtre du vingtième siècle 

FRA 4.3 Le Roman du vingtième siècle 

FRA 4.4 Proust 

FRA 4.5 Littératures de la Francophonie 

 

 

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Primary Readings for the Honours Degree in French

 

Assembled from the bibliographical information for each course, the following list provides a panoptic view of what is to be covered in the program on a year-by-year basis. This list is purely for informational purposes and does not correspond to the type of comprehensive undergraduate exit exam that traditionally characterized humanities programs at universities such as Oxford or Geneva. It may, however, serve as an indication of the depth and breadth of the program proposed by the HDDP, and may also serve as a basis for comparison with programs in similar specializations at other universities.

The dates given in brackets are those of the first publication in the original language. The edition to be used for the course readings will be determined in consultation with the Project’s Head Librarian and the course’s professor. Translations are listed according to the title of the translation to be used. Again, the precise edition to be used will be determined in conjunction with the Head Librarian and the teaching professor.

 

First Year

 

Marguerite de Navarre, Heptaméron [1558]
Rabelais, Gargantua [1534]
---. Le Quart Livre [1552]
La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire [1576]
Marot, L’Adolescence clémentine [1538]
Scève, Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu [1544]
Labé, Sonnets [1555]
Du Bellay, Les Antiquitez de Rome [1558]
---. Les Regrets [1558]
Ronsard, Les Amours [1552-1578]
Du Bellay, Défense et Illustration de la langue française [1549]
Montaigne, Essais [1580-1592]
Malherbe, Œuvres poétiques [1630]
Marie de Gournay, Les Advis [1634]
La Guirlande de Julie (ouvrage collectif) [1638]
Voiture, Lettres et poésies [1650]
Guez de Balzac, Le Socrate Chrétien [1652]
---. Lettres [1665]
D’Aubigné, Les Tragiques [1616]
Théophile de Viau, Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé [1623]
Saint Amant, Poésies [1632]
Tristan l’Hermite, Les Plaintes d’Acante [1633]
---. Les Amours de Tristan [1638]
---. Lyre du sieur Tristan [1641]
Corneille, L'Illusion comique [1636]
---. Le Cid [1637]
Descartes, Discours de la méthode [1637]
d’Urfé, L’Astrée [1607]
Sorel, Le Berger extravagant [1627-1633]
---. Histoire comique de Francion [1633]
Scarron, Le Roman comique [1651-1657]
Scudéry, Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus [1649-1653]
---. La Clélie [1654-1660]
Furetière, Le Roman bourgeois [1666]
Mme de La Fayette, Zaïde [1671]

 

 

 

Second Year

 

Pascal, Lettres d’un Provincial [1657]
Corneille, Œdipe [1659]
Bossuet, Oraisons funèbres [1669-1687]
La Fontaine, Fables [1663-1694]
Molière, Tartuffe [1669]
---. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme [1670]
Racine, Andromaque [1667]
Boileau, Satires [1667-1716]
---. Le Lutrin [1674-1683]
Mme de Cévigné, Lettres [1671-1696]
Fénelon, Les Aventures de Télémaque [1699]
La Rochefoucauld, Apologie du Prince de Marcillac [1649]
---. Maximes [1665-1678]
Pascal, Pensées [1669]
Mme de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves [1678]
Racine, Phèdre [1677]
La Bruyère, Les Caractères [1688-1694]
Saint-Simon, Mémoires [1781-1790]
Prévost, Manon Lescaut [1728-1731]
Marivaux, La Vie de Marianne [1731-1742]
Crébillon fils, Les Égarements du cœur et de l’esprit [1736]
Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses [1782]
Béroalde de Verville, Le Moyen de parvenir [1616]
Naudé, Apologie pour les grands personnages soupçonnés de magie [1625]
La Mothe le Vayer, De la vertu des païens [1641]
Tallement des Réaux, Historiettes [1657-1659]
Bussy-Rabutin, Histoire amoureuse des Gaules [1665]
Diderot, Les Bijoux indiscrets [1748]
Rétif de la Bretonne, Lucile, ou le Progrès de la vertu [1768]
Sade, Les Infortunes de la vertu [1787]
Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques [1734]
---. Candide [1759]
Diderot, Supplément au voyage de Bougainville [1779]
---. Jacques le Fataliste et son maître [1778-1780]
Rousseau, Confessions [1782-1789]

 

Third Year

 

Lamartine, Méditation poétique [1820]
Vigny, Les Poèmes antiques et modernes [1826-1837]
Hugo, Préface de Cromwell [1827]
---. Hernani [1830]
---. Les Feuilles d’automne [1831]
---. Les Contemplations [1856]
Musset, Lorenzaccio [1834]
---. Poésies [1833-1852]
Gérard de Nerval, Odelettes [1853]
---. Les Filles du feu [1854]
Chateaubriand, Atala-René [1825]
Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris [1831]
George Sand, Lélia [1833]
Musset, La Confession d’un enfant du siècle [1836]
Gérard de Nerval, Sylvie [1853]
Balzac, Le Père Goriot [1834]
Flaubert, Madame Bovary [1857]
Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, Madame Gervaisais [1869]
Zola, L’Assommoir [1876]
Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse [1761]
Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir [1830]
Sainte-Beuve, Volupté [1834]
Balzac, Le Lys dans la vallée [1836]
Flaubert, L’Éducation sentimentale [1869]
Proust, Du côté de chez Swann [1913]

 

Fourth Year

 

Beaudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal [1857]
Théophile Gauthier, Émaux et camées [1852-1872]
Théodore de Banville, Odes funambulesques [1857]
Paul Verlaine, Poèmes saturniens [1866]
---. Fêtes galantes [1869]
Arthur Rimbaud, Le Bateau Ivre [1883]
---. Une saison en enfer [1873]
Stéphane Mallarmé, Poésies [1899]
Guillaume Apollinaire, Alcools [1913]
Louis Aragon, Les Yeux d’Elsa [1942]
Francis Ponge, Le Parti pris des choses [1942]
Jarry, Ubu Roi [1896]
Giraudoux, La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu [1935]
Artaud, « Le Théâtre de la cruauté » [1938]
Sartre, Les Mouches [1943]
Ionesco, Rhinocéros [1959]
Beckett, En Attendant Godot [1952]
Genet, Le Balcon [1956]
Proust, À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [1919]
Sartre, La Nausée [1938]
Genet, Le Miracle de la rose [1946]
Robbe-Grillet, Les Gommes [1953]
Proust, Le Côté de Guermantes [1920-1921]
---. Sodome et Gomorrhe [1921-1922]
Aimé Césaire, Les Armes miraculeuses [1946]
Léopold Sédar Senghor, Éthiopiques [1956]
Franz Fanon, Les Damnés de la terre [1961]
Anne Hébert, Kamouraska [1970]
Mohammed Khair-Eddine, Le Déterreur [1973]
Michel Tremblay, Les Belles-Sœurs [1968]