FRN3806 - Twentieth-Century French Poetry

Leader: Philip Anderson

Offered

Not offered in 2007

Synopsis

This unit will consider a range of writing practices in French from verse forms to the prose poem through representative texts and authors of the 20th century. It will examine formal features of these practices and other definitions of their poeticite. It will ask what (if any) particularly poetic sense they make and how they make sense, looking at the theoretical work of poets and literary theorists and testing it against writing practices.

Objectives

On successful completion of this course students should have:

1. Acquired a familiarity with a range of 20th-century writing practices in French which are called "poetic", including a practical understanding of their formal features (e.g. versification).
2. Acquired an awareness of the evolution of these practices in their social, political and cultural contexts.
3. Developed a critical understanding of the issues involved in shifting definitions of the poetic and an evaluation of the specificity and usefulness of the term "poetic".
4. Developed and be able to deploy strategies which make sense of texts according to an understanding of their poetics.

Assessment

Essay No.1 in French (1000 words): 25%
Essay No.2 in French (1500 words): 30%
Seminar presentation (1500 words): 30%
Notebook (500 words): 15%

Contact hours

3 hour seminar per week

Prerequisites

At least French Studies 4 at any year level (FRN1040, FRN2040)