Questions of Literary History

Teacher(s)

Cartron Maxime (compensates Guiderdoni Agnès); Guiderdoni Agnès;

Language

French

Main themes

Literary history is a critical construction whose narrative, always in evolution, says as much about the moment that produced it as it does about the periods it evokes: it is a discourse that links the past and the present. The course invites the students to become aware of this phenomenon by identifying the principles and issues at stake in the construction of this discourse.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Situate the discourse on literature historically and recognise the principles involved in each of them.
2	Establish a link between literary theory (dealing with literature in general) and criticism (looking at specific works).
3	Situate literary studies in the context of the humanities.
4	Produce a critique of criticism: accept the narratives of literary history as constructs to be analysed; bring to light the choices made by all critical discourse.

Content

Literary history is now a field in its own right within literary studies. In recent years, scholars have sought to develop a theoretical framework for it from a “meta” perspective—that of the history of literary history. This course will build on this tradition by focusing specifically on what are known as “historiographical categories.” Often derived from words ending in “-isms,” these categories constitute one of the most powerful—and also one of the most problematic—tools available to literary history for classifying and ranking periods, aesthetic movements, authors, and so on. 
After an introductory lecture on the exact nature of these historiographic categories, we will successively examine the most commonly used ones in the history of French literature, from “Renaissance” to “World Literature,” including “Baroque,” “Classicism,” “Romanticism,” “Symbolism,” and “the Enlightenment.” Adopting a sociological perspective, we will attempt to understand how these categories have been constructed over the course of history, what they encompass, what purpose they serve, what their methodological and ideological assumptions are, and so on.

Teaching methods

Lectures. 
Students will regularly be invited to take an active part in the course through pre-course readings, Wooclap surveys and questionnaires. 

Evaluation methods

Time-limited written exam during the exam session. 

Online resources

Moodle

Bibliography

Principalement: Alain Vaillant, L'histoire littéraire, Paris, Armand Colin, 2017 (2e édition)
Une bibliographie complémentaire commentée sera donnée au fur et à mesure du cours.
A complementary commented bibliography will be given as the course progresses.

Faculty or entity

> ELAL