ARTS, CULTURE AND SOCIETY

The course is part of the curriculum of the Master’s degree program in European, American and Postcolonial Languages, Literatures (including the Master en études françaises et francophones).

1. Knowledge and ability to understand: the main historical stages of the relationship between art and literature; the historical and cultural context covered by the program; the works and poetics of the authors studied; in-depth knowledge of a single work in its various facets and articulations (philology, genre history, poetics, rhetoric, hermeneutics, stylistics, reception); knowledge of applied criticism.

2. Ability to place a work in its socio-historical context of production

3. Autonomy of judgment: ability to evaluate different approaches, methods and interpretations of the texts examined; ability to exercise critical spirit and analytical skills; ability to navigate among different critical perspectives.

4. Communication skills: ability to communicate course-related topics in French, clearly, coherently, with correct terminology.

5. Learning skills: Ability to synthesize, connect, order, convey ideas, forms and data.

Good knowledge of the French language, both written and oral. The course will be held in French.

Practices of the Collector

This seminar examines the literary and symbolic forms of collecting in French literature from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Collecting — accumulating, classifying, preserving — constitutes both a cultural practice and an aesthetic principle that shapes writing itself. The collection thus raises questions of value, memory, desire, and knowledge, while also offering a model for thinking about textual forms such as the inventory, the series, and the fragment.

The course will begin with Honoré de Balzac, whose interiors and cabinets of objects stage the social and symbolic dimensions of accumulation. In Charles Baudelaire and Joris-Karl Huysmans, collecting becomes an aesthetic — and sometimes obsessive — practice that reveals the sensibilities of modernity and fin-de-siècle aestheticism. The seminar will continue with Georges Perec, whose work explores the logics of inventory, classification, and archive as forms of writing. Complementary perspectives will be introduced through texts by Colette, Annie Ernaux, and Sophie Calle, in order to examine practices of collecting, archiving, and memory in contemporary writing.

Chosen works:

- Balzac, Le Cousin Pons
- Nodier, Le bibliomane
- Baudelaire, « La collection de M. Eugène Piot »
- Poe, « Philosophie de l’ameublement »
- Huysmans, À rebours
- Goncourt, La Maison d’un artiste
- Uzanne, La Nouvelle Bibliopolis. Voyage d’un novateur au pays des Néo-Icono-Bibliomanes, 1897.
- Walter Benjamin, « Je déballe ma bibliothèque »
- Georges Perec, « Les Choses » / « Penser, classer »

Critical bibliography:


• Walter Benjamin, Je déballe ma bibliothèque. Une pratique de la collection ; Paris, capitale du XIXᵉ siècle (dans Le Livre des passages).
• Jean Baudrillard, Le Système des objets.
• Krzysztof Pomian, Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux. Paris, Venise : XVIᵉ–XVIIIᵉ siècle.
• Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection.
• Mieke Bal, Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis.

• Bill Brown (dir.), Things.
• Arjun Appadurai (dir.), The Social Life of Things.
• Daniel Miller (dir.), Material Cultures.

• François Dagognet, Le Musée sans fin.
• Jean-Pierre Richard, Microlectures (pour l’analyse de l’objet et du détail).
• Philippe Hamon, Imageries : littérature et image au XIXᵉ siècle ; travaux sur la description et l’objet.
• Jean Baudrillard, Pour une critique de l’économie politique du signe.
• Dominique Pety, Poétique de la collection au XIXe siècle.

In addition to these texts, other extracts will be made available on Moodle during the course, as well as additional bibliographical information.

The oral exam, which will be held in French, will include two parts: one related to the common course content: texts and documents analyzed in class and available on Moodle, with the reference bibliography (see above), and one for personal study of the topics covered, from primary and critical sources agreed with the teacher.

L’examen oral en français se compose de deux parties : la première est relative aux contenus communs du cours : textes et documents analysés pendant les cours et disponibles sur Moodle, et requiert l’étude de la bibliographie signalée ci-dessus ; l’autre concerne l’approfondissement personnel d’un sujet en lien avec l’un des thèmes du cours, à définir avec l’enseignant.

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 grade is 18, the maximum grade is 30 with honors.

Regarding the grading scale (criteria for assigning grades):

* 18–22: sufficient knowledge of the content; limited ability to discuss independently; limited knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; limited knowledge of the author's poetics; limited knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues present in the texts.

* 23–26: fair knowledge of the content; fair ability to discuss independently; fair knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; fair knowledge of the author's poetics; fair knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues present in the texts.

* 27–30: good or excellent knowledge of the content; good or excellent ability to discuss independently; good or excellent knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; good or excellent knowledge of the author's poetics; good or excellent knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues present in the texts.

* 30 with honors: honors are awarded when the knowledge of the content, the ability to discuss independently, the knowledge of basic textual analysis tools, the knowledge of the author's poetics, and the knowledge of the historical-cultural context and the issues present in the texts are all outstanding.

Frontal lectures in French will be enriched by moments of exchange and shared reflection with students, on the topics covered. All teaching materials (texts and in-depth studies) uploaded during the course to the Moodle platform will be subject of study and their knowledge will be verified at the exam.

Students who are unable to attend the course in its entirety are asked to notify before the start of class.
Les étudiants qui ne pourraient pas suivre intégralement le cours sont invités à le signaler avant le début des cours.