FRENCH LITERATURE 3

The French Literature 3 course is a core component for students following the literary-cultural curriculum within the Degree Program in Languages, Civilizations and Language Sciences, in line with the objectives of the program and the learning area of Literatures and Cultures outlined above.

The course aims to introduce students to the cultural context and French literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, through a diachronic overview designed to highlight the evolution of aesthetic and literary categories, literary practices, authorial productions, and the most significant genres of the period studied, as well as certain aspects of literary reception. It also seeks to refine students’ tools for reading and analyzing literary texts, in continuity with the work undertaken in the first- and second-year French literature courses.

By the end of the course, students will have completed the historical-literary curriculum required by the French Studies track, which as a whole spans the period from the 16th to the 21st century.

1. Knowledge and understanding: knowledge of the broad lines of French literary history in the 16th and 17th centuries (history of ideas, poetics, evolution of literary genres), of the major authors and works in the programme; knowledge of some basic notions of narratology and linguistic-stylistic analysis and of appropriate literary terminology; ability to understand texts belonging to different literary genres.
2. Applied knowledge and understanding: ability to apply more and more independently to the literary texts the critical and methodological tools of linguistic, stylistic and thematic analysis acquired in previous literature courses; ability to independently face a critical text and apply the acquired knowledge to the contextualization of literary phenomena within the society that produced them.
3. Autonomy of judgement: being able to formulate working hypotheses (also in view of the design of the "elaborato finale"); being able to independently elaborate the critical readings carried out by putting them in relation to the texts in order to formulate a personal judgement, argued in a coherent and effective way.
4. Communication skills: understanding the presentation of an academic speech and a literary and critical written text; presenting the learned contents in an appropriate way in French; being able to present a problem and/or a literary work in a clear and coherent way; being able to conduct an analysis of a literary text in an appropriate way; being able to interact briefly in French in lessons on the problems dealt with.
5. Learning skills: applying the progression of knowledge in the historical-cultural-literary field to the critical reading of a text and a literary phenomenon; knowing how to place a work in the cultural and literary context of production and in the development of the type of belonging; formulating interpretative hypotheses based on the knowledge learned; learning to develop an appropriate discourse to convey literary content.

In order to ensure that this teaching can be optimally followed, a knowledge of French of B2 is useful. It is also useful to have a basic knowledge of some critical investigation tools provided in previous literature courses.

Title: Evolution of literary forms from the Renaissance to Classicism

The course will outline the essential lines of the cultural context and of the French literary production of the 16th and 17th centuries, in their links with the European context.
The course will focus on the general characteristics of humanistic-renaissance culture, the role of literary models, the aesthetic categories of Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism, the essential characteristics of the poetics of genres in its evolution and some major authors. The guided analysis of passages from some of the works in the program and of anthological pieces is planned. This type of activity will provide models of a critical approach to texts of different types (narrative, poetic, theatrical), in order to consolidate the learning of critical methodologies and to encourage the application of previously acquired analysis tools, as well as to support individual reading conducted independently by students.

1. Institutional part: History of Literature (16th and 17th centuries)
- Alain Viala, Une histoire brève de la littérature française, volume 1 (Le Moyen âge et la Renaissance) e volume 2 (L'âge classique et les Lumières), PUF, 2014 e 2015.
OR:
- Storia europea della letteratura francese, vol. I, a cura di L. Sozzi, Torino, Einaudi, 2013, part II (Il Cinquecento) and part III (Il Seicento). For the XVIIth century, alternativly: Federico Corradi, Introduzione al Seicento francese e al Classicismo, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2006.

2. Works (primary sources)
- Selected poetical texts will be loaded on the moodle platform during the course.

Integral reading of:
- Madame de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves.
- Molière, a Comedy a tragedy of your choice between: Tartuffe ou l'imposteur, L'avare, Dom Juan.
- Racine, a tragedy of your choice between Andromaque, Phèdre, Bérénice.

3. Critical studies (secondary sources)
- -Véronique Denizot commente “Les Amours” de Ronsard, Gallimard, collection “Foliothèque”, pp. 36-59; 73-78.
- Jean Rousset, the chapter «La Princesse de Cleves», in Forme et signification, Paris, Corti, 1962.
- Daniela Dalla Valle, the chapter «Délivre l’univers d’un monstre qui t’irrite (Phèdre, II, 5, v. 701)», in Un verso di Racine, a cura di B. Papasogli, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2013, pp. 95-110, or Gabriella Violato, L'Andromaque di Racine e il lascito barocco, in Tre saggi su Racine, a cura di B. Papasogli, Pisa, Pacini, 2011, pp. 75-100, or Benedetta Papasogli, "Dans l'Orient désert quel devint mon ennui!", in Un verso di Racine, a cura di B. Papasogli, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2013, pp. 51-67.
The texts indicated are available in bookshops (in some cases also in e-book version) or in the BALI library (Pal. Cosulich).
The critical bibliography may be subject to slight changes.

The exam interview, mainly in French, will verify the contents of the module, the knowledge of the works studied with the support of critical texts, the knowledge of the historical-literary context of the 16th and 17th centuries (cultural and literary movements, poetics, evolution of genres, main authors), the ability to understand a literary text and use critical and methodological tools to analyze it, the communication skills, the reflection on topics and texts. Monitoring of participation in the activities carried out during the course (performance by the students of the tasks assigned for the distance activity and participation in the Shared Forum) will complete the assessment.

oral

The assessment is given in thirtieths, with a minimum passing grade of 18/30.
The grading scale is as follows:
18-22 range: barely sufficient/sufficient knowledge of the syllabus; limited ability to understand, analyse and interpret texts; sufficient communication skills.
23-26 range: fair knowledge of syllabus; sufficient/poor understanding, analysis and interpretation of texts; fair communication skills.
27-30 range: good/very good knowledge of the syllabus; good/very good ability to understand and analyse texts as well as to interpret them, also through the formulation of autonomous judgements; correct, appropriate and effective exposition; active participation and performance of at least 70% of the planned distance activities.
Honours will be awarded in the presence of extensive and in-depth knowledge of the syllabus, including the supporting critical readings, as well as strong interpretative and independent judgement skills and excellent communication skills.

Since this is a blended learning course, participation in remote activities (contributions to the shared forum and completion of assigned tasks) is an integral part of the course and will be evaluated accordingly: limited participation, defined as completing less than 70% of the remote activities, will result in a maximum overall grade of 26/30, subject to the outcome of the oral examination.

The course is delivered in blended mode, meaning it consists of both in-class lessons and asynchronous activities to be carried out using materials provided on Moodle (podcasts, PowerPoint presentations with commentary, worksheets, texts, short videos, and the creation of glossaries based on the texts studied), following instructions that will be given throughout the course. Both components are integral and essential parts of the course.

Lessons will be primarily lectures conducted in French (with brief summaries in Italian). Active student participation will be encouraged, particularly during text analysis. There will be opportunities for guided individual reflection (mainly during the asynchronous activities within the blended format) and for interaction both in class (short oral presentations) and online (participation in shared forums and other Moodle activities). The schedule for the asynchronous sessions will be communicated at the beginning of the semester and made available on the Moodle platform.

All teaching materials (texts and supplementary resources) uploaded to Moodle during the course are part of the required study material and will be assessed in the final exam.

Completion of the asynchronous activities on Moodle is an integral part of the learning process and will be evaluated — in terms of participation — as part of the final grade.

Students who are unable to attend classes are invited to contact the instructor before the start of the course. For students belonging to categories officially recognized by the University (cat. 701), the recording of lectures via Panopto (accessible through the Moodle platform) will be made available as supplementary study material (see https://www.unive.it/pag/42819/ ).
Access to the recordings will be granted only to students recognized by the University as eligible.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development