Poertry of Modernity, the Modernity of Poetry

The practice of poetry, common in France since its beginnings, experienced important renovation, first in the seventeenth century and then in the nineteenth, proving its capacity for metaphamorphosis, from Barocco to Classicisme, then from Classicisme to Modernity, and the intelligence of its play with styles, genres, and ideas. Our emphasis in this course will be on demonstrating these developments and explaining them. To accomplish this we will use five major anthologies, touchstones of these transformations: Art poétique by Boileau, Fables et Contes of La Fontaine, Alcools, by Guillaume Apollinaire, Charmes, by Paul Valéry, and Le Roman inachevé, by Louis Aragon.

Students can choose to take either a methodological section (A) or a literary section (B) of this course.

The first option, section A, offers literary and social science students an opportunity to master analytical methods and textual commentaries that will allow them to read and understand a variety of theatrical texts, all while enhancing their analytical writing skills through various methodological exercises. These include summaries, literary comparisons, technical explanations, textual commentaries, argumentative dialectical essays, reading analyses and oral presentations.
The second option, section B, offers students the opportunity to study the historic, literary, cultural, philosophical and social evolution of French poetry from the 17th to the 20th century in great depth.

Required texts:
1) Apollinaire, Alcools, coll. Poésie/Gallimard
2) Valéry, Charmes, in Poésies, coll. Poésie/Gallimard, ISBN 2 – 07 – 030282 – 2
3) Aragon, Le Roman inachevé, coll.Poésie/Gallimard, ISBN 978 – 2 – 07 – 030011 - 2
4) Boileau, Art poétique, t. 2, Sylvain Menant éd., Paris, Fammarion, 1998, GF 206, ISBN 2080702068
5) La Fontaine, Fables, Jean-Charles Darmon éd., Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 2002, ISBN-10: 2253010049, ISBN-13: 978-2253010043
6) La Fontaine, Contes libertins, Paris, Librio, 2004, n°622, ISBN 2290332275