L’image des Suds dans la littérature française (XIXe-XXe siècles) / The Image of the Souths in French Literature (19th & 20th Centuries)

This course, addressed to advanced students, aims to examine the image of the Mediterranean world in French literature from the Romantic period to the present. Multiple but convergent points of view will be taken in order to develop a global perspective. We will first concentrate on the origins of the theme by studying the idea of exoticism, particularly oriental exoticism beginning with the late 18th C. We will consider the genre of the "Voyage in the Orient" with brief insights from several major authors (Chateaubriand, Nerval). We will analyze in greater detail the Voyage en Espagne of Théophile Gautier, a narrative representative of the genre. The Lettres de mon Moulin of Alphonse Daudet, will demonstrate how in the 19th C., both in the fable and the realist novel, a picturesque image of the South in France (Languedoc and Provence) developed. We will also examine the influence of Classical Mediterranean civilizations on Giono, Valéry, Gide, Camus, and how this influence, important in the first part of the 20th C., helped form a very different image of the South. Literature from the Maghreb, particularly the novel of Mouloud Mammeri, La Colline oubliée will broaden our perspective on the French literature of the Mediterranean world.

Texts: Théophile Gautier, Voyage en Espagne (Gallimard, Folio classique, nº 1295); Alphonse Daudet, Lettres de mon moulin (Gallimard, Folio classique, nº 3239); Jean Giono, Regain, Hachette, Le Livre de poche, nº 382; Mouloud Mammeri, La Colline oubliée, Gallimard, Folio, nº 2353.

In addition, a collection of short texts will be provided.