Les grands discours de l’éloquence politique française / The Great Speeches of French Political Rhetoric

This course will study a variety of modern political speeches from the French Revolution to today. It offers a panorama of the evolution of French political rhetoric according to its historical, political, intellectual, and religious context. Students will have the opportunity to become familiar with political literature and will work on the art of rhetoric and political discourse in a concrete and lively manner, notably through enrichment of vocabulary, knowledge of the diversity of language styles, analysis of argumentation, and discursive strategies. Students of this course will have the opportunity to write by themselves a political speech which will be performed in a special event the ‘Soirée de l’Eloquence politique’ (end of the Summer School, in the Warner Hemicycle). For this summer (2009), the ‘Soirée’ will be devoted to Victor Hugo.

Text (required) :

Grossiord, S., Victor Hugo. Et s’il n’en reste qu’un, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, (ISBN : 2070533441 / 2-07-053344-1)

Reference texts:

Chaussinand-Nogaret G., Les grands discours parlementaires de la Révolution : de Mirabeau à Robespierre : 1789-1795, Armand Colin, 2005.

Anceau E., Les grands discours parlementaires du XIX siècle, de Benjamin Constant à Adolphe Thiers, 1800-1870, Armand Colin, 2005.

Garrigues J., Les grands discours parlementaires de la Cinquième République, Armand Colin, 2006.