Les Chefs-d'oeuvre de la nouvelle française et francophone / The French and Francophone Short Story

This course will examine the short story in French from early narratives of the Middle Ages read in modern translation, to examples from the Renaissance and the conte philosophique of the eighteenth century, and up to the present day. Particular emphasis will be placed on classic short stories from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from both France and the Francophone world. Themes and problematics central to this course include: the evolution, definition, and reception of the genre; structural questions of space and narrative; the representation of women and gender; the relation between text and visual arts; geographic diversity, and the aesthetics of disappearance. In addition to techniques for reading and writing critically in French, this course will offer a panoramic introduction to important authors as varied in style and content as Voltaire, Flaubert, Sartre, and Djebar.

Texts Voltaire, Candide ou l'optimisme . Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 2004; Balzac, Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu. Paris: Flammarion, 2004; Flaubert, Un Coeur Simple Paris:Flammarion, 1997; Mérimée, La Vénus d'Ille. Paris:Petits Classiques Larousse, 2004.