French Literature 3
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide third-year specialist students with an overview of French Literature, from Renaissance to Classicism, and offers a focus on important texts of this period. A reflection is offered on the relationship - thematic, stylistic, cultural - between period and authors considered and modernity.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: 1) An essential framework of French Literature, from Renaissance to Classicism, according to the authors considered, 2) Understanding basic elements in order to analyse texts' structure (metrical, stylistic, theatrical and narrative devices). Skills. 1) Ability to identify the main expressive features (stylistic, thematic and structural) of every literary work and recognize the author's identity in it 2) Ability to date literary works in chronological and cultural connection with modernity, 3) Ability to use coherently critical contributions 4) Ability to read works and identify themes and formal issues.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The Course is entitled: "Crime et littérature, du XVIIe au XIXe siècles: loi et transgression, beauté et violence de Corneille à Mérimée".
The course intends to analyze the meaning and forms of crime within literature, starting with some French texts: a tragedy, Corneille's Médée, and a tale from the Baroque period, a novel of classicism, La Fontaine's Les amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, and a Romantic novella, Mérimée's Carmen. The aim is to investigate the interest of crime as a form of liberation from the ethical and social conventions of specific historical and cultural periods, and to see, at the same time, in counter-light, the "regulating" function of crime itself. The path provides ample space for aesthetic considerations: even beauty is redefined in relation to the violence and horror of the crime scene
The course intends to analyze the meaning and forms of crime within literature, starting with some French texts: a tragedy, Corneille's Médée, and a tale from the Baroque period, a novel of classicism, La Fontaine's Les amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, and a Romantic novella, Mérimée's Carmen. The aim is to investigate the interest of crime as a form of liberation from the ethical and social conventions of specific historical and cultural periods, and to see, at the same time, in counter-light, the "regulating" function of crime itself. The path provides ample space for aesthetic considerations: even beauty is redefined in relation to the violence and horror of the crime scene
Prerequisites for admission
The course is held entirely in French, and the examination materials and bibliography presuppose skills in literary history, the use of terminology and critical analysis acquired in the previous courses of French Language and Literature 1 and 2
Teaching methods
Frontal teaching: presentation of the course, reflections on the meaning and forms of crime in literature in general and in the individual cultural periods considered (relationship between codes and transgressions, redefinition of aesthetic canons in relation to violence and horror); summary of the historical-literary context of each author considered; analysis of the texts in their various articulations (rhetorical and stylistic devices, theatrical and narrative structures)
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Teaching Resources
Pierre Corneille, Medea, with parallel text into French, Siké, Euno edizioni, 2023.
Jean-Pierre Camus, La mère Médée, PDF on myAriel by the beginning of September
Jean de La Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, édition de Céline Bohnert, Patrick Dandrey, Paris, Gallimard, Classique Folio, 2021
The Introductions of these editions are part of the compulsory critical material for the examination.
Bibliography for attending students and non attending students:
Pierre Corneille, Médée, Jean-Pierre Camus, La mère Médée
Critical essays in PDF on myAriel website by the end of September.
Jean de La Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon
Critical essays in PDF on myAriel website by the end of October
Third part
Prosper Mérimée, Carmen, any edition. The text is also provided in PDF on myAriel
Carmen, Opéra comique en quatre actes, texte Henry Meilhac Ludovic Halévy musique Georges Bizet. The text is also provided in PDF on my Ariel
PDF Critical essays PDF on myAriel from October-November
Bibliography for non-attending students
Additional critical Material in PDF by the end of October
For the third part: additional critical Material in PDF from October-November
Jean-Pierre Camus, La mère Médée, PDF on myAriel by the beginning of September
Jean de La Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, édition de Céline Bohnert, Patrick Dandrey, Paris, Gallimard, Classique Folio, 2021
The Introductions of these editions are part of the compulsory critical material for the examination.
Bibliography for attending students and non attending students:
Pierre Corneille, Médée, Jean-Pierre Camus, La mère Médée
Critical essays in PDF on myAriel website by the end of September.
Jean de La Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon
Critical essays in PDF on myAriel website by the end of October
Third part
Prosper Mérimée, Carmen, any edition. The text is also provided in PDF on myAriel
Carmen, Opéra comique en quatre actes, texte Henry Meilhac Ludovic Halévy musique Georges Bizet. The text is also provided in PDF on my Ariel
PDF Critical essays PDF on myAriel from October-November
Bibliography for non-attending students
Additional critical Material in PDF by the end of October
For the third part: additional critical Material in PDF from October-November
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral examen:The oral examen consists of an interview in French on the syllabus topic. The student will have to analyse the texts in French presented in the course, be able to contextualise them (historical-literary context), be able to recognise the elements of novelty in the genre under examination, be able to comment on the individual texts in their various articulations (rhetorical-stylistic devices, theatrical and narrative structures)
L-LIN/03 - FRENCH LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professors:
Paraboschi Francesca, Preda Alessandra
Professor(s)
Reception:
Tuesday, 9:00-12:00
Piazza Sant'Alessandro 1
Reception:
Tuesday from 2.30 to 7.30 pm.
square S.Alessandro 1, 2nd floor