FRANCOPHONE LITERATURES

The course is intended primarily for students enrolled in the LLEAP master’s program specializing in French studies, but it can also be taken as a free-choice course by students of postcolonial literatures (in English or Spanish) from other curricula and from the SL master's degree program.
Through a path structured in gradual learning stages, students will be enabled to engage with complex literary and critical texts in French (to read, analyze, interpret them, and situate them within their respective historical and cultural contexts) and to master techniques related to literary studies and textual analysis (philology, genre history, poetics, rhetoric, hermeneutics, stylistics, reception studies, and theoretical-literary terminology).

Knowledge and understanding
By the end of the course, students will have acquired a solid understanding of the main themes related to the representation of impossible love in modern and contemporary Francophone literatures. They will be able to understand how emotional and relational dimensions are shaped by social, cultural, and postcolonial structures, and to reflect on the role of social taboos—linked to gender, race, class, or colonial memory—that render certain forms of love forbidden or tragic. The selected novels, coming from diverse cultural and geographical contexts such as Québec, Haiti, and sub-Saharan Africa, will offer a rich and multifaceted basis for analysis.

Apply knowledge and understanding
Students will be able to apply theoretical and methodological tools to the analysis of literary texts, combining attention to narrative structures, narrative voices, and stylistic strategies with the ability to identify thematic devices that permeate the works. In particular, they will learn to interpret the theme of impossible love as a lens through which to explore cultural tensions, political positions, and power dynamics.

Making judgements
The course aims to foster students’ ability to formulate independent, well-reasoned judgments based on close reading and critical engagement with existing interpretations. They will be encouraged to raise questions, challenge canonical readings, and articulate personal perspectives supported by coherent and well-researched arguments.

Communication skills
A key objective of the course is also the development of advanced communication skills: students will be expected to present their analyses clearly, coherently, and thoughtfully, both in written and oral form. Seminar discussions and classroom debates will offer opportunities to practice critical dialogue with peers and to refine their ability to communicate effectively.

Learning ability
Finally, the course seeks to strengthen students’ autonomy in study and research. Methodological guidance will be provided to help them critically consult literary texts, theoretical works, and historical sources, and to construct interdisciplinary connections between literature, history, and cultural studies. In this way, the course aims to train readers who are capable of engaging thoughtfully and critically with the complexity of contemporary Francophone texts and contexts.

Good knowledge of the French language, particularly in terms of the ability to understand academic oral communication (lectures are in French) and written texts (all study materials are in French).
Required language level: minimum B2, but C1 is recommended.

In the Francophone academic context, the environmental humanities developed later than in the Anglophone world, where they now constitute a well-established and strongly interdisciplinary field. In French and Francophone scholarship, the debate initially took shape through disciplines such as cultural geography, ecocriticism, and environmental philosophy, without immediately converging under a single unifying label. Within this framework, the concept of écopoétique stands out for its specifically literary and aesthetic orientation: rather than analyzing environmental discourse in a broad sense, écopoétique focuses on the forms, images, and writing practices through which the living world and the nonhuman are represented and conceived. Unlike the environmental humanities, which imply an explicitly interdisciplinary and often political approach, écopoétique thus privileges a reflection internal to texts, while still engaging with the ethical and ecological implications of literary creation.
This theoretical framework proves particularly fruitful when applied to Francophone postcolonial contexts, where environmental issues intersect with the historical legacies of colonization, global inequalities, and forms of territorial vulnerability. The works of authors such as Louis-Philippe Dalembert (Ballade d’un amour inachevé), Yannick Lahens (Failles), Jean Bofane (Congo Inc.), and Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba (Hexa) make it possible to explore what may be described as a genuine “literature of catastrophe,” in which extreme natural events, ecological crises, and social collapse become narrative devices for interrogating the present. In these texts, climate dystopias and disaster narratives do not merely project future scenarios; they also reveal the continuities between environmental exploitation and colonial violence, while proposing new ways of representing place. From an ecopoetic perspective, such works contribute to a decolonial rewriting of space, in which territories cease to function as mere backdrops and instead emerge as active agents, bearing memory, conflict, and the potential for symbolic reinscription.

a) Primary Corpus
- Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Ballade d’un amour inachevé, 2013.
- Yannick Lahens, Failles, Paris, Sabine Wespieser, 2010.
- Jean Bofane, Congo Inc. Le testament de Bismarck, 2014.
- Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba, Hexa, 2021.


b) Critical Texts
Criticism related to the course topic:
- Schoentjes Pierre, Ce qui a lieu. Essai d’écopoétique, Marseille, Wildproject, 2015.
- Vignoli Alessia, La catastrophe naturelle en littérature. Écritures franco-caribéennes, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2022.
- Garnier Xavier, Ecopoétiques africaines. Une expérience décoloniale des lieux, Paris, Karthala, 2022.
- Ferdinand Malcolm, Une écologie décloniale. Penser l’écologie depuis le monde caribéen, Paris, Seuil, 2019.


Criticism on Francophone literatures and the postcolonial approach:
- Beniamino, Michel, La francophonie littéraire. Essai pour une théorie, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999.
- Bessière, Jean, Moura, Jean-Marc (eds.), Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2001.
- Clavaron, Yves, Francophonie, postcolonialisme et mondialisation, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2018.

Manuals on Francophone Literatures:
- Gauvin, Lise et al. (eds.), Littératures francophones, Lyon, ENS Editions, 2013.
- Hoffmann, Léon-François, Littérature d’Haïti, EDICEF, 1995.
- Ndiaye, Christiane (ed.), Introductions aux littératures francophones, Montreal, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2004.

Additional critical texts will be presented during lectures. Books available online will be provided on Moodle.

The exam is oral and conducted in French.
The exam begins with a topic chosen by the student, from those related to the exam syllabus (or with a topic agreed upon with the instructor).
The student’s ability to critically comment on the texts will be assessed, situating them within the historical-cultural framework of Francophone literatures: on one hand, by identifying and explaining the intrinsic and contextual peculiarities of the texts under examination; on the other hand, by demonstrating an adequate knowledge and understanding of the historical-cultural reality of these literatures in their development, specifically in relation to the part covered in the lectures or indicated in the exam syllabus.

oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

The minimum passing grade is 18, and the maximum grade is 30 cum laude.
As for the grading scale (criteria by which grades will be assigned):
Range 18–22: sufficient knowledge of the content; limited ability for independent discussion; limited knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; limited understanding of the author's poetics; limited knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues addressed in the texts.
Range 23–26: fair knowledge of the content; fair ability for independent discussion; fair knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; fair understanding of the author's poetics; fair knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues addressed in the texts.
Range 27–30: good to excellent knowledge of the content; good to excellent ability for independent discussion; good to excellent knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; good to excellent understanding of the author's poetics; good to excellent knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues addressed in the texts.
30 cum laude: awarded when the knowledge of the content, the ability for independent discussion, the knowledge of basic textual analysis tools, the understanding of the author's poetics, and the knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues addressed in the texts are all excellent.

The lectures in French will be enriched by moments of exchange and shared reflection with the students on the topics discussed. All educational materials (texts and supplementary readings) uploaded during the course on the Moodle platform will be part of the study material, and their knowledge will be tested during the exam.

Further clarifications and additional critical bibliography will be provided during lectures. The literary corpus analyzed will consist of the four aforementioned texts and a selection of excerpts indicated in the syllabus or provided by the instructor.
The lectures will be conducted in French.
For students wishing to write a thesis in Francophone literatures, it is required, if not already completed, to take the "History of the Culture of Francophone Countries" exam from the undergraduate program (which may also be taken as a free-choice course).

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