Code scolarité: LG20DM22

This unit seeks to place literary works in their historical and cultural context, while exploring their aesthetic dimension. The tools, methods and practices of textual analysis will be further investigated through close reading and argumentative writing.
The courses on offer (TDs) give students an opportunity to further study American literature through the critical analysis of individual works. Some of the TDs also introduce students to the study of the relationships between literary and cinematic forms.
Students will develop their critical vocabulary and their close reading skills. Reading, writing and speaking skills are developed in relation to argumentative analysis.
Students will choose one of the courses on offer, but each has a limited number of places available.

Programmes 2022-2023:

Groupe 1 (Mme Delage-Toriel):
Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin (Penguin edition)
This short novel, written by Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov at the same time as Lolita, will be the focus of the course. Together, we shall observe its treatment of such key themes as exile, loss, memory, comedy vs tragedy, along with its narrative tricks, puns and stylistic devices. Students are expected to have read the novel before the course has begun.

Groupe 2 (Mme Desnain):
This course seeks to explore the works of Sylvia Plath, and in particular her novel The Bell Jar (1963). I will be using the 2019 Faber&Faber edition in class, so I recommend getting this one, but we will make do if you are unable to get this particular edition. Students will be provided with a reading schedule on the first day of class. Though the novel is written with a lot of humour, be aware that it does deal with sensitive topics.
Trigger warning : mental health issues (mostly depression), attempted sexual assault, self-harm and suicide.

Groupe 3 (Mme Delage-Toriel):
Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin (Penguin edition)
This short novel, written by Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov at the same time as Lolita, will be the focus of the course. Together, we shall observe its treatment of such key themes as exile, loss, memory, comedy vs tragedy, along with its narrative tricks, puns and stylistic devices. Students are expected to have read the novel before the course has begun.

Groupe 4 (M. Eastman):
Henry James, Washington Square (1880; Penguin Classics edition). An early realist work by a major American writer. Henry james's novel set in 1840s New York portrays the conflict between a young woman and her father about her intentions to marry a penniless young man. Romance, power, gender, innocence, illustion are at issue in James's novel, which manifests his characteristic tendency to leave much unsaid.
Students are expected to have read this short novel before the course begins.

Groupe 5 (M.Lebold):
INTO THE BEAT: An introduction to the Beat Generation
Bibliography :

• Kerouac Jack, On the Road, Penguin [1957]
• Ginsberg Allen, Howl & Other Poems, City Light Bookstore [1956]
• “Pull My Daisy” (movie by Robert Frank, 30’) [1959]

In our study of Ginsberg’s Howl and Kerouac’s On The Road , we will approach the beat generation as a bohemian, avant-garde group and literary brotherhood based on
a) the embrace of norms, values and mores that work against mainstream America
b) the extension of literary subjects to untapped domains
c) the invention of a new form of writing that mirrors be-bop jazz and action painting
d) a spiritual search for awakening that intermingles a quest for sainthood, a mysticism of excess and shades of Zen Buddhism.

 

Contextualiser les objets culturels ; analyser textes et documents ; prendre position et construire un argument abouti ; s’exprimer et dialoguer ; synthétiser, décloisonner, transférer ; chercher de l’information.
 

Ouvrage de référence pour tous les cours de littérature:
Chris Baldick, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford University Press, 2004.