Literary analysis seminar

This seminar offers to study two major works of 19th-century French literature: a novel by Balzac (Le Colonel Chabert) and a collection of poems by Verlaine (Poèmes saturniens, 1866).

 

Teaching methods

Students will be reading the two works, starting with Verlaine (first 5 sessions) and ending with Balzac (next 4 sessions). For each session, they will be asked to read carefully one or two pages in particular, which will be studied in seminar.

 

Bibliography

Students can read Poèmes saturniens and Le Colonel Chabert in the edition of their choice, but the editions used in the seminar will be the following:

Paul Verlaine, Recueils de jeunesse. Poèmes saturniens. Les Amies. Fêtes galantes. La Bonne Chanson, GF-Flammarion, 2018.

Balzac, Le Colonel Chabert, Le livre de poche-Classiques or GF-Flammarion.

 

Evaluation methods:

The seminar is evaluated by a literary commentary with limited time (3h) on an extract from a work on the program.