Università Roma Tre

Literature and Society in the French XIXth Century.

Exile writers (from Hugo to Zola); authors and works that are subject to judicial proceedings (Baudelaire, Flaubert); an important rethinking of the role of poetry and literature (from "art pour l'art" to "J'accuse!"): the relationship of XIXth century French literature to society is complex and multifaceted. The course will propose several itineraries through the way novelists and poets have conceived that relationship in their works and their theoretical reflections.

Course Materials

Overview
Lagarde et Michard, XIXe siècle, Paris, Bordas.
J.-Y. Tadié, Introduction à la vie littéraire du XIXe siècle, Paris, Colin, 2004.

I. Novel
Il Romanzo francese dell’Ottocento, a cura di A.M. Scaiola, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008.
M. Raimond, Le Roman depuis la Révolution, chap. 1-2-3.

Texts
Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir
Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Zola, L’assommoir

Further readings / Critical bibliography
H. de Balzac, Le Père Goriot.
C. Ginzburg, “L’aspra verità. Una sfida di Stendhal agli storici”, in Id., Il filo e le tracce, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2006.
G. Sapiro, La responsabilité de l’écrivain. Littérature, droit et morale en France (XIXe-XXe siècle), Paris, Seuil, 2011, deuxième partie (“La conquête de l’autonomie littéraire sous le Second Empire”).
G. Philippe et J. Piat, La langue littéraire, Paris, Fayard, 2009, chap. 8 (“L’invention de la prose”) et 9 (“Émile Zola et la langue littéraire vers 1890”).

II. Poetry
La poesia francese 1814-1914, a cura di L. Pietromarchi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012.
M. Raymond, De Baudelaire au surréalisme, “Introduction”.
Texts
C. Baudelaire, I fiori del male, trad. di G. Caproni e commento di L. Pietromarchi, Venezia, Marsilio, 2008 (a selection of poems).
A selection of poems by other authors will be provided during the class.

Critical bibliography
G. Poulet, La poésie éclatée.
J. Starobinski, La Mélancolie au miroir, Paris, Julliard, 1989.