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Academic Year 2000/2001

Advanced Seminar in Literature: The Text: Author, Reader, Society
FREN 278 FA

The purpose of this seminar is to discuss specific modes of literary criticism and theoretical discourse and their application to a number of selected texts. Topics and works to be examined will vary each year. The organizing topic in the fall 1996, "The Text: Author, Reader, Society," focuses on: The act of reading involves a triad in which author, reader, and society are participants. This notion has been examined and questioned in many ways in recent theoretical writings. Is there an author in or of a text? Is it true that it is only "in the reader that the text comes to life"? How does the reader react to the eroticism in Sade's and Balzac's works? How do social and cultural elements present themselves in the contexts and contents of texts and their readings? Is it possible to learn how better to interpret aspects of Zola's works by reading Aron's The Art of Eating in France: Manners and Menus in the 19th Century? How can Duby's The Chivalrous Society help us examine La Chanson de Roland ? How can Eugen Weber's France: Fin de Siecle help us penetrate the decadence portrayed by Huysmans? These are questions that will be studied in readings of medieval texts, medieval and classical plays, 17th-century letters, and 18th- and 19th-century short fictions and novels.

MAJOR READINGS

LA CHANSON DE ROLAND LA FARCE DE MAITRE PATHELIN Moliere, Dom Juan Sevigne, Selection of LETTRES Sade, LA PHILOSOPHIE DANS LE BOUDOIR Balzac, LA FILLE AUX YEUX D'OR, LA DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS Zola, L'INONDATION Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Selections from CONTES Huysmans, A REBOURS Selected readings from Suleiman and Crosman, THE READER IN THE TEXT W. Iser, THE ACT OF READING Duby, THE CHIVALROUS SOCIETY Duby and Mandrou, HISTOIRE DE LA CIVILISATION FRANCAISE J. P. Aron, THE ART OF EATING IN FRANCE (19TH CENTURY) Eugen Weber, FRANCE, FIN DE SIECLE Robert Herbert's IMPRESSIONISM, ART, LEISURE, AND PARISIAN SOCIETY

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Short papers; direction of class discussions; participation in class discussions; final take-home exam.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course is required of French majors and should be taken in their final year. It is also open to qualified non-majors. All students should have completed satisfactorily FREN 223, 224 or equivalent. Students who have not done so should consult with the professor before preregistering. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: FREN223 OR FREN224 Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001

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