CONTEMPORARY FRENCH LITERATURE
cod. 06194

Academic year 2018/19
2° year of course - Second semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Letteratura francese (L-LIN/03)
Field
A scelta dello studente
Type of training activity
Student's choice
30 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in - - -

Learning objectives

Students will learn the concept of intertextuality and be able to detect its forms and its meanings in the novels studied during the course and indicated in the compulsory bibliography. Moreover, students will be able to establish a relation among the literary texts, the authors and the themes studied during the course.

During the course, students will study the origin, the evolution and the forms of the concept of intertextuality; they will learn to understand and analyze literary texts, their formal characteristics and their contents. In particular, they will learn:
- To establish a relation between texts and authors poetics;
- To appropriate themes and to explore texts autonomously and originally;
- To discuss and express, in French, contents, analysis, opinions above literary texts;
- To express opinions based on a deep analysis of literary texts;
- To face relations among the texts, the historical context, the cultural period and authors poetics;
- To establish connections among many texts.

An oral exam is aimed to verify the knowledge acquired during the course. The exam will be oral and in French. The exam will verify whether:
- The student knows the concept of intertextuality;
- The student is able to detect the forms of intertextuality in literary texts;
- The student knows the authors and the novels studied during the course
- The student is able to put in relation authors, novels, cultural and historical contexts;
- The student is able to speak French in order to convey contents by using appropriate structures and vocabulary;
- The student is able to appropriate contents and give a personal elaboration of the main contents of the course.

Prerequisites

- - -

Course unit content

The course, held in French, will focus on the birth and the evolution of the concept of intertestuality. It will also take into account how it is used above all in the literary field. After a theoretical introduction of the topic, the course will focus on the analysis of La Vie devant soi by Romain Gary, written with the pseudonym of Émile Ajar. The analysis is aimed to underline how this novel is a source of inspiration for other writers. Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis by Louis-Philippe Dalembert establish deep intertextual relations with the novel of Romain Gary.
During the oral exam, students will talk about the theoretical concept of intertextuality in order to show that they have acquired forms and meanings and they are able to detect them in the three novels indicated by the teacher in the exam program.
To fulfill this object, students must read in full the novels of Gary, Schmitt e Dalembert. Other critical essays about the three novels will be added during the course.

Full programme

- - -

Bibliography

- Romain Gary/Émile Ajar, La Vie devant soi, Paris, Mercure de France, 1975 (edizione in commercio: Gallimard, Folio n° 1362).
- Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran, Albin Michel, libre de poche, 2001.
-Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, Paris, éditions du Rocher, 2005.

- Nathalie Piégay-Gros, Introduction à l’intertextualité, Paris, Dunod, 1996 ;
- Tiphaine Samoyault, L’intertextualité. Mémoire de la littérature, Paris, Armand Colin, 2014.

Teaching methods

The course consists of lectures, during which the presentation of theoretical and literary contents will be supplemented by commentary and analysis of extracts from texts. The Elly Platform will be used in order to make available critical materials to enable students to carry out personal investigations of the course contents.

Assessment methods and criteria

The knowledge acquired during the course will be assessed through an oral exam in French. The following knowledge and skills will be assessed:
- knowledge about authors and works covered in the course and their accurate insertion into cultural and historical context;
- the ability to express content in correct French;
- an adequate level in the ability to analyze and rework the basic contents in an autonomous way.

A fail is determined by the absence, demonstrated by the student during the oral examination, of the ability to understand the basic contents of the course, the lack of autonomous preparation and the inability to solve problems related to information retrieval and the decoding of texts, as well as the formulation of independent judgments. A pass (18-23/30) is determined by the ability, demonstrated by the student, to have acquired the basic content of the course; a sufficient level of autonomous preparation, an acceptable ability to solve problems related to information retrieval and decoding of texts, as well as the formulation of independent judgment. Middle-range marks (24-27/30) are assigned to those students who produce evidence of more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) levels in the evaluation indicators listed above. Upper-end marks (from 28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded on the basics of the demonstration of a very good to an excellent level in the evaluation indicators listed above.

Other information

- - -