French Literature
A.Y. 2026/2027
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide non-specialist students an overall preparation in relation to French Literature and Civilisation, with a focus on influence and mediation with Italian Literature.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: 1) An essential framework of French Literature, according to the periods and authors considered, 2) Understanding basic elements in order to analyse texts' structure (metrical, stylistic, 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 Italian literature, 3) Ability to use coherently critical contributions 4) Ability to read works and identify themes and formal issues.
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 Italian literature, 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 can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The Course is entitled Otherness and Estrangement: The Problematic Encounter between the Individual and the World in Selected Works by Charles Baudelaire and Albert Camus.The course aims to explore the complexity of human relationships—marked by contempt, fear, solidarity, and indifference—through a critical reading that examines not only the relational themes addressed in the selected works, but also the literary forms and structures through which they are effectively expressed.The course includes a selection of readings from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris, together with a complete reading of Albert Camus's The Stranger (L'Étranger) and The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Mythe de Sisyphe).
Prerequisites for admission
A passive knowledge of French is required: Italian translations are used individually, but texts are read in class in French for stylistic commentary on the original.
Teaching methods
Frontal teaching: presentation of the subject and contextualization of the authors and works chosen; analysis of texts by Baudelaire and Camus examined in their different articulations (rhetorical devices, stylistic, poetic or narrative structures,). Part of the course is devoted to a discussion with students on the course's main theme and on the ways in which literature gives it a nuanced and problematizing expression.
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.
Teaching Resources
For 6 credits:
Anthology of texts available on MyAriel website at the beginning of the course.
L'étranger di Albert Camus, any edition.
Dossier of critical texts available on MyAriel website from the end of October
For non-attending students
Additional PDF critical material uploaded to MyAriel website from the end of October
For the 9 credits for attending and non-attending students:
Le mythe de sisyphe d'Albert Camus, any edition
Dossier of critical texts available on my Ariel website from the beginning of November
For non-attending students:
Additional critical material on my ariel website from the beginning of November
Anthology of texts available on MyAriel website at the beginning of the course.
L'étranger di Albert Camus, any edition.
Dossier of critical texts available on MyAriel website from the end of October
For non-attending students
Additional PDF critical material uploaded to MyAriel website from the end of October
For the 9 credits for attending and non-attending students:
Le mythe de sisyphe d'Albert Camus, any edition
Dossier of critical texts available on my Ariel website from the beginning of November
For non-attending students:
Additional critical material on my ariel website from the beginning of November
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam: The oral exam consists of an interview in Italian on the subject of the syllabus. The student will have to analyze the texts presented in the course, know how to contextualize them (historical-literary context), know how to recognize the elements of the reflection on the concepts of otherness and estrangement offered by the selected texts; know how to analyze the text in its various articulations (rhetorical and stylistic devices, poetic and narrative structures), in order to define the thematic-formal.
Assessment criteria: ability to culturally situate the works analyzed; ability to use literary critical contributions on the subject coherently; ability to reason critically; quality of exposition; competence in the critical examination of the concepts of otherness and estrangement, and of the literary forms that effectively articulate them.
Assessment criteria: ability to culturally situate the works analyzed; ability to use literary critical contributions on the subject coherently; ability to reason critically; quality of exposition; competence in the critical examination of the concepts of otherness and estrangement, and of the literary forms that effectively articulate them.
Modules or teaching units
Part A and B
FRAN-01/A - French Literature - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Part C
FRAN-01/A - French Literature - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Tuesday from 2.30 to 7.30 pm.
square S.Alessandro 1, 2nd floor