Corso di laurea in Culture e letterature
del mondo moderno

The course aims at consolidating the knowledge of French literature with the help of an approach to the morphology of the narrative text and to the peculiarities of its structure. The course also aims to strengthen the critical analysis skills and to provide the required methods and tools for a well-structured critical interpretation of literary texts.

Contextualisation of the evolution of French literature in relation to the principal socio-historical developments of the European cultural space. Capacity of understanding the specific themes and motifs characterising modern and contemporary French literature with appropriate methods and instruments of analysis. Acquisition of basic notions of analysis of the literary text.

The lessons will mainly be held in traditional form with the support of slides and videos fostering the participation of the students.

The examination will take place in oral form. The students are required to show the capacity of critically discussing the literary texts with the help of questions and excercises meant to investigate the knowledge acquired during the course. They will have to display an adequate terminology and methodology as well as capacities of autonomous elaboration of the subject.

The course aims at investigating the forms and the structures of narrative texts, paying particular attention to the modern and contemporary novel in French language within the broader European and extra-European context between the XVIII and the XXI century. For this aim, a general picture of theoretical-methological reference will be provided which is based on narratology and on its more recent developments.

Selection of pages from:

Denis Diderot, Jacques le Fataliste et son patron,  Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses, Stendhal, La Chartreuse de Parme, Flaubert, Trois contes, Zola, Germinal, Proust, Du coté de chez Swann, Gide, Les Faux-Monnayeurs, Breton, Nadja, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Le Voyeur, Queneau, Les fleurs bleues, Gabrielle Roy, Bonheur d’occasion,  Vassilis Alexakis, L'enfant grec, Nancy Huston, Nord perdu (the materials downloadable at my personal website)

For the history of French literature: Storia europea della letteratura francese, a cura di L. Sozzi, Torino, Einaudi, 2013.

The following texts will be used :

Roland Barthes, Léo Bersani, Philippe HAmon, Michael Riffaterre, Ian Watt, LIttérature et réalité, Paris, du Seuil, 1982

Gerard Genette, Figure III, Paris, du Seuil, 1972

Roland Bourneuf et Réal Ouellet, L'Univers du roman, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France,‎ 1981

Bernard Valette, Esthétique du roman moderne, Paris, Nathan , 1993

The course can be chosen together with French Literature Module 1 as a 12 CFU integrated course.

The course, which is addressed to the students of the academic program ““Cultures and Literatures of the Modern world”, is however open to students from other programs.

For further information, students are invited to consult my web page.

Non-attending students are invited to contact me.

I am responsible for the Erasmus exchange program with the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis.