French 328
Selected Topics in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century French Literature
Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-Century French Poetry
Reid
Fall 2002
Classroom: STV 220
Day: Monday
Time: 5:30-8:20
Office: STV 215
Office Hours: T/R 1-3 and by apt.
Phone: 438-7894
e-mail: jhreid@ilstu.edu
homepage: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jhreid/conversation/
Why read a poem, particularly a nineteenth-century
poem? In our modern world, where we are pushed around by global economic,
social, and political forces, what does an old poem have to say about our
lives? What interest might we have in the beauty that a poem seeks to achieve?
French symbolist poems of the mid- and late
nineteenth century and early twentieth century are among the richest in world
literature. They arose out of French romantic poetry, which introduced into
French literature the central value of individual vision, of the imagination,
and of emotion in opposition to the shared, rational, and social vision that
classical literature was supposed to convey. It is thus to romanticism, not
only in France, but in England and Germany before it, that we owe the value we
now give to the ways in which our individual eyes and minds, as well as of
members of different cultures, color the world we see.
French symbolist poems, beginning with the poems of
Charles Baudelaire, transformed the romantic creation of individual vision
into a poetic meditation on our relationship to ourselves. This relation is
colored, not only by our individual way of seeing the world, but by our
repetition of society’s convention vision of the world. In symbolist poetry we
discover the many ways in which we represent ourselves and the varying desires
-- including desires that society considers sinful or evil --
that motivate our minds to pass from one vision of ourselves and the world to
another.
It is the beauty of our multicolored relations to
ourselves that symbolist poetry makes us rediscover, despite being in a modern
world where our sense of our own individual diversity seems to be drowned out,
where we seem to be unimportant cogs within the wheels of global commerce and
politics.
Throughout the course, we will practice techniques of
doing rich close readings.
SCHEDULE:
*All readings that are not in brackets and all critical reading guides must be completed by the day
scheduled. Bracketed readings are suggested readings and may be referred
to in class.
*All students should read or review Peter Schofer et.al., Poèmes, Pièces,
Prose: Introduction à l'analyse des textes littéraires français. pp.
3-19 before the second class (On reserve). Class discussion will
presuppose that you can recognize all aspects of poetic form discussed in the
chapter.
*Grads should read Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short
Introduction: Chapter 5, "Rhetoric, Poetics, and Poetry" 66-77 by the end of
the third week. We will then schedule a special meeting to discuss the
chapter. The text is on reserve, but grads who plan to do their primary
area in literature should purchase the text.
GLC: Guide de lecture critique
Aug. 19 Introduction, French Society at the Beginning of the Nineteenth-Century, Romanticism
Aug. 26 Lamartine: "Le Lac"; de Vigny: "Moïse", GLC Lam/Vig Schofer, 3-19, Set up date for graduate students to discuss Culler Chp. 5. [Lamartine: "L'Isolement," "Le Crucifix"; de Vigny: "La Mort du Loup"]
Sept. 2 No Class
Sept. 9 Hugo: "Les Djinns," "Saison des semailles," "Le Mendiant," GLC Hugo ["Tristesse d'Olympio," "Demain dès l'aube," "Le Vieillard chaque jour"]
Sept. 16 Nerval: "El Desdichado," "Le Christ aux Oliviers"; Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal: "L'Invitation au voyage" [Nerval: "Sylvie"] GLC Nerval/Baudelaire
Sept. 23 Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal: "Correspondances," "A
une passant," "Parfum exotique," "Harmonie du soir ["L'Albatros," "La Vie
antérieure"] GLC Baudelaire 2
Sept. 27 First undergraduate paper due by noon on
a poem by Lamartine, de Vigny, Hugo, or Nerval that we have not discussed in
class.
Sept. 30 Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal: "Spleen ("Quand le ciel bas et lourd..."), "Obsession" ["Spleen (J'ai plus de souvenirs...," "Le Goût du néant," "Les Bijoux," "Le Rebelle," "L'Horloge," "Les Métamorphoses du vampire," "Duellum"] GLC Baudelaire 3
Oct. 7 Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal: "Hymne à la beauté," "Le Crépuscule du matin"
GLC Baudelaire 4
["Le Crépuscule du soir," "Le Cygne," "Une Charogne," "Réversibilité"]
Oct. 11
First graduate paper by noon on a poem by Lamartine, de Vigny, Hugo, Nerval, or
Baudelaire that we have not discussed in class.
Oct. 14 Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal: "Recueillement" Petits poèmes en prose: "Les Fenêtres," "Anywhere out of the World" GLC Baudelaire 5 ["Le Voyage," "La Cloche fêlée"]
Oct. 21 Baudelaire: Petits poèmes en prose: "Les Veuves," "Les Foules" ["Le Mauvais Vitrier," "La Chambre double," "Assomons les pauvres," "Les Bienfaits de la lune," "Laquelle est la vraie?"] GLC Baudelaire 6
Oct. 28 Verlaine: "Mon rêve familier," "Il pleure dans mon coeur" ["Art poétique," "Clair de lune," "Chanson d'automne"] GLC Verlaine
Nov. 1 Second undergraduate paper due by noon on a poem by Baudelaire that we have not discussed in class.
Nov. 4 Rimbaud: "Le Dormeur du Val," "Le Bâteau Ivre" ["Voyelles," "Marine"] GLC Rimbaud I
Nov. 11 Rimbaud: "Le Bateau Ivre" continued, "Aube" ["Délires 2" "Adieu," "Conte"] GLC Rimbaud II
Nov. 18 Mallarmé: "Les Fenêtres," "Brise Marine" ["Le Pitre châtic," "Don du poème"]
Nov. 25 Mallarmé: "Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui..." ["Ses purs ongles...," "Crise de vers," "Un Coup de dés jamais n'oblira le hasard"] GLC Mallarmé et Verlaine
Dec. 2 " Paul Valéry: "Les Grenades" ["Les Pas," "L'Abeille," "Le Cimetière marin," "La Dormeuse"]
Dec. 4 Final undergraduate and graduate papers due by noon on a poem by Valéry, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, or Valéry that we have not discussed in class.
Dec. 9 Final Exam
Anthologies de la poésie française sur le Web:
Poésie Française
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Participation: Each student will be expected to
she will also be expected to learn from the professor and fellow students, as well as participate actively
and critically in
class discussions on this reading. All
discussion will take place in French.
2.
Critical Reading Guides: Students will copy of the web copy of the
syllabus critical reading guides for each class.
These are to be completed
intelligently before class, modified in a different color ink in class, and
turned in at
the end of class. Late Guides will receive a maximum of 80%
credit.
3.
Papers: Undergraduates will write three 3-4 page papers.
Graduates will write two 6-10 page papers.
All
papers will be written in French and corrected
with the Microsoft French grammar and spelling
corrector. Papers will interpret a single
poem in terms of its literal and rhetorical meanings,
including those produced by the formal structure of the poem.
You should write a coherent essay on what the poem is saying and on how it is saying it.
The essay should have an introduction (stating your thesis or the question you will answer) and a conclusion (synthesizing your overall argument), as well as paragraphs that are each devoted to a discreet part of your argument. Statements about what the poem is saying should be supported by citing and interpreting specific words or phrases in the poem.
After interpreting a part of the poem, you should explain how some of the form of the poem relates to what the poem is saying. Do not list all the rimes, their disposition, line lengths, metaphors, etc. Rather describe those parts of the form that support what the poem is saying according to you, and only after interpreting what that part of the poem is saying.
If it is a short poem you can sometimes divide your paragraphs according to the stanzas of the poem, but only if each stanza adds something new to what the poem is saying overall.
4. Final Examination There will a final
examination, written in French, covering all required reading and class
discussion.
5. Required Texts
On-line texts
Baudelaire, Charles: Les Fleurs du mal: et autres poèmes.
---. Petits Poèmes en Prose (le spleen de paris
Amazon.com for under $7.00 + shipping)
6.
Recommended Texts
Paul Robert, Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française
An excellent French/English dictionnary
6. On Reserve
Robert, Paul. Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française
---. Dictionnaire des Noms Propres
Schofer, Peter et.al., Poèmes, Pièces,
Prose: Introduction à l'analyse des textes littéraires français.
FINAL GRADE:
The
final grade will be calculated as follows:
| Undergraduate Credit | Graduate Credit | |
| Participation | 15 | 15 |
| Critical Reading Guides | 25 | 20 |
| Papers | 35 | 40 |
| Final Exam | 25 | 25 |