First

420
19th Century French Short Narrative
Spring 2009
Reid
T 5:30-8:20
Office: WIH 357
438-7894
E-Mail: jhreid@ilstu.edu
Reid Homepage: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jhreid/
Office Hours: T/R11-1 or by appt.

Grammatical Correction Abbreviations
Le passé composé vs.l'imparfait
Les articles: du de la, des vs. le, la, les
Content correction signs for Guides de Lecture Critique (GLC)
Common French Grammatical Errors

A. SUBJECT AND OBJECTIVES

This course provides the opportunity for an in-depth study of representative nineteenth-century French short narratives. The narratives represent several trends in nineteenth-century French prose including realism, romanticism, and the fantastic, as well as a semi-autobiographical story of madness and a medieval legend. The realist narrative placed the action in contemporary times and places. It fictionally reconstructed and commented upon aspects of contemporary life, society, politics, and commerce. Romanticism reacted against both classical restrictions on art and the growth of bourgeois rationality in the nineteenth century by emphasizing personal experience and emotion and glorifying individual passions, drives, and the imagination. The fantastic, which grew out of romanticism, created an atmosphere of uncertainty about whether the events it represented were real or supernatural, rational or irrational. All of these movements reflect the complex nature of French thought in the nineteenth century, when the bourgeois class gradually replaced the aristocracy in society and politics, when science, technology, the industrial revolution and commerce grew rapidly, and when authors and artists reacted both positively and negatively the rapid changes in everyday life brought about by these events.

The general objectives of this course are to:

1) explore the form of French short narratives.

2) study how they reflect upon particular cultural issues of the nineteenth century.

3) practice and refine skills of thoughtful and reflective reading.

B. SCHEDULE:
*All assigned passages are to be read and the guide de lecture critique completed by the beginning of the class for which they assigned

Jan. 13 Syllabus. Introduction to the short story.

Jan. 20 René, François-René de Chateaubriand, texte, GLC René;

Jan. 27 La Fille aux yeux d'or, Honoré de Balzac, pp. 7-62, GLC Fille I

Feb. 3 La Fille aux yeux d'or, pp. 62-122. GLC Fille II; MAKE APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS TERM PAPER

Feb. 10 L'Illustre Gaudissart, Balzac; texte, GLC Gaudissart Lisez aussi Monarchie de Juillet (les deux pages) sur la monarchie de juillet et 2:160-211c pp. 199-201 sur les romantiques sociaux et St. Simon. You can magnify the page in Adobe Acrobat in order to read it more easily.

Feb. 17 Sylvie, Gérard de Nerval, GLC Sylvie

Feb. 24 Sylvie continued; Aurélia, Nerval, texte; GLC Aurélia PROSPECTUS FOR TERM PAPER DUE. PROSPECTUS GUIDELINES. Listes des oeuvres de Balzac

Mar. 3 Aurélia, continued; La Légende de St. Julien l'hospitalier, Gustave Flaubert, GLC Julien; text

SPRING VACATION

Mar. 17 La Légende de St. Julien l'hospitalier, continued; "Un coeur simple," Flaubert, text (first web page chapters 1 and 2 only, click "suite" to copy rest of story), GLC Coeur simple

Mar. 24 Un coeur simple, Flaubert

Mar. 26 4 p.m. FIRST DRAFT OF TERM PAPER due. No extensions

Mar. 31 Le Rideau cramoisi, Barbey d'Aurévilly, GLC Rideau Cramoisi; text

Apr. 7 Guy de Maupassant: "La Serre" texte, Le Signe texte; L'Inutile beauté texte, GLC Maupassant I

Apr. 14 Le Horla, Guy de Maupassant, GLC Le Horla I.

Apr. 21 Le Horla continued , GLC Le Horla II et GLC Cadignan I

Apr. 28 Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan, text, GLC Cadignan II

May 1, 12 noon, FINAL DRAFT OF TERM PAPER due, no extensions.

May 5 Final Exam 5:30-8:20

Contes et nouvelles de Maupassant
Sarrasine, de Balzac

C. COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Guides de Lecture Critique

I expect all questions on the question sheets to be answered thoughtfully before coming to class. I encourage you to rethink, revise or supplement your answers during the class.

Answer each question by reflecting on the passages that are relevant to the answer. Refer to details and events only when they help illustrate your answer. Take in account different ways of seeing the issue.

Term Paper

Each student will complete a 13-15 page term paper on: 1) one or more of the short narratives read in class in its socio-historical context; 2) or a particular trend such as romanticism, realism, or the fantastic in the short narrative; 3) or on a comparison between the treatment of a historical issue by one or more of the narratives and the historical evidence about this issue.

A prospectus will be due before spring break (see syllabus). Guidelines for the prospectus are attached to the syllabus. The prospectus will include a bibliography (MLA style) of works that you will probably use in writing your term paper and one or two paragraphs that state your preliminary thesis and a summary of your possible argument. The summary will refer to texts in the bibliography that will help you explore aspects of your argument.

There will be two drafts of the term paper (see syllabus). Both drafts should be fully researched, composed, and interpreted. The second draft will be based on your reflections since the first draft and your responses to my comments on that draft.

The prospectus and both drafts must be turned in on time.

Final Examination

There will a final examination, written in French, covering all required reading, lecture, and class
discussion.

D. FINAL GRADE:

The final grade will be calculated as follows:

Participation		15
Reading Guides		20
Papers		40
Final Exam		25

E. PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH REALISM, ROMANTICISM, SYMBOLISM

Allen, James Smith. Popular French Romanticism: Authors, Readers and Books in the 19th C.. Syracuse:
    Syracuse UP, 1985.
Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Trans. Willard Trask. Princeton:
    Princeton UP, 1953.
Barthes, Roland. "L'Effet de réel." Communications. 11 (1968): 84-89.
---. S/Z. Paris: Seuil, 1970.
Béguin, Albert. L'Ame romantique et le rêve. 2 Vols. Paris: Corti, 1946.
Brombert, Victor. Stendhal: La Voie oblique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1954.
---. The Novels of Flaubert. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1966.
Cahm, Eric. Politics and Society in Contemporary France 1789-1971. London: Harraps, 1972.
Camp, Wesley. Marriage and the Family in France since the Revolution. New York: Bookman, 1969.
Carpentier, Jean et François Lebrun. Histoire de France. Paris: Seuil, 1987.
Clark, Priscilla. Literary France: The Making of a Culture. Berkeley: California UP, 1987.
Cobban, Alfred. France since the Revolution. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970.
Cruickshank, John. French Literature and its Background. Vols. 4 & 5. London: Oxford UP, 1969.
Culler, Jonathan. Flaubert, The Uses of Uncertainty. Ithica: Cornell UP, 1974.
Dallenbach, Lucien. "Du fragment au cosmos." Poétique. 40 (1979): 420-31.
---. "Le Tout en morceaux: La Comédie humaine et l'opération de lecture, II." Poétique. 42 (1980): 156-69.
Daumard, Adeline. Les Bourgeois et la bourgeoisie en France. New York: Putman, 1969.
Duby, Georges, et. al. Histoire de la France. Paris: Larousse, 1982.
Dupeux, Georges. La Société française 1789-1960. Paris: Armand Colin, 1964.
Flaubert, Gustave. Oeuvres. 2 vols. Edition de la Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard, 1963-66.
Girard, René. Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque. Paris: Grasset , 1961.
Hollier, Denis ed. A New History of French Literature. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1989.
Hugo, Victor. Préface de Cromwell. Edition de la Pléiade. Vol. 1. Paris: Gallimard, 1963.
Lukács, Georg. Studies in European Realism. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1970.
Magraw, Roger. France 1815-1914: The Bourgeois Century. New York: Oxford UP, 1986.
Marx, Karl. The Civil War in France. New York: International Publishers, 1962.
---. The Eighteenth Brumaire. Moscow: Progress, 1954.
May, Charles. The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice. New York: Twayne, 1995.
Mitterand, Henri. "Fonction narrative et fonction mimétique: Les Personnages de Germinal." Poétique 16 (1973):
     477-90.
Muscovici, Claudia. "Hybridity and Ethics in Chateaubriand's Atala." Nineteenth-century French Studies. 29.3&4 92001): 197-216.
Prendergast, Christopher. The Order of Mimesis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986.
Schor, Naomi. Breaking the Chains: Women, Theory and French Realist Fiction. New York: Columbia UP, 1985.
---. Zola's Crowds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978.
Terdiman, Richard. The Dialectics of Isolation. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976.
---. Discourse/Counter-Discourse. New Haven: Yale UP, 1984.
Todorov, Tzvetan. The Fantastic. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve UP, 1972.
Weber, Eugen. France : Fin de siècle. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986. 9-26.
Zola, Emile. The Experimental Novel. Paris: Garnier- Flammarion,     1971.

Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contract Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 438-5833 (voice) or 438-8620 (TTY).