Seminar: 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

This course will focus on one of the issues that has most preoccupied scholars of 17th-century literary history: the religion of writers—that is, their religious identity. We will seek to understand why it is so important to literary historians to determine the religious affiliation of writers from this period, sometimes in a very binary manner. Why do we insist that this or that poet was a fervent Calvinist or a frivolous, worldly figure? Why have there been heated debates surrounding the works of certain novelists or playwrights, sometimes portrayed as ardent supporters of the Reformation, other times as staunch Catholics? And above all, at the heart of this inquiry, what role do historians assign to literature in its relationship with religion? Is it subordinate, or, on the contrary, predominant? These are the questions we will explore over the course of the four-month term.

Teaching methods

After an introductory session, we will consider whether there is such a thing as a Catholic literary history and a Protestant literary history, before examining two exemplary case studies: the “paganism” attributed to certain writers, as well as the gray area represented by the concept of “inter-denominational in-between,” developed by critics in an attempt to understand the spirituality of writers who can no longer be considered Catholic, yet cannot be readily classified as Protestant. The final session of the seminar will be devoted to the difficult question of unbelief and atheism.

Evaluation methods

Each student must submit a written assignment by the start of the exam period, consisting of a critical reflection on how literary history has addressed a specific author’s relationship to religion.

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