The making of literature in the 17th century

Teacher(s)

Cartron Maxime (compensates Guiderdoni Agnès); Guiderdoni Agnès;

Language

French

Prerequisites

History of literature and command of the various tools for analysing literary texts. 

Main themes

The seminar will focus on a specific issue. Depending on the issues addressed, different texts will be chosen from seventeenth-century French literature. 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Master the historiography of French literature in the modern period;
2	Develop a critical discourse on literary history as it has been conceived in different periods.

Content

For 2024-2025, the course will be devoted to the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes which formally took place in France between the very end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. We will study how the polemical discourses constituting this Querelle sketch a certain conception of literature, and more specifically, of French literature. Our investigation will not be limited to the texts written and published during the period itself, but will extend to the present day, where academic research is still animated, albeit differently, by this Querelle.

Teaching methods

After two introductory sessions in the form of lectures and readings, students will be invited to work in groups to recreate a 17th-century literary salon in which the major issues relating to the Querelle will be debated. Each student will have to choose from a list provided by the teacher the character he or she will be playing in this salon; the raw material for the preparation of this debate will be mainly texts from the anthology (see course material). The preparation of this debate will be the subject of progressive, collective supervision, from meeting to meeting, until its final presentation, lasting around 50 minutes, on a date chosen jointly. Depending on the number of students, there will be one or two debates / one or two reconstructed salons.

Evaluation methods

Each student will be required to submit a written paper by the start of the examination session, corresponding to their oral performance at the debate.
For the August session, the examination will consist of an individual piece of written work, together with an individual oral presentation.

Online resources

Moodle

Teaching materials

• La Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes, précédé d'un essai de Marc Fumaroli. Textes compilés par Anne-Marie Lecocq, Paris, Folio Classique, 2001

Faculty or entity

> ELAL