French Language Literature and Culture I

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should have a solid understanding of the history of French and European literature and culture.

Teaching Methods

i) Lectures.

ii) Review of texts individually or in groups.

iii) Presentation of partial works.

iv) Development of an individual written paper.

Learning Outcomes

Students will learn to question the structure of seventeenth and eighteenth century French literature and conduct research so as to understand other realities and contexts of French Literature.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

This class will address the topic "Narrative Travels and Utopias in French literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries", using a set of texts that are representative of the evolution of this form of writing. This class will provide a conceptual, formal and aesthetic view of the alternate worlds created in the "classic" utopian narratives, using the Lumières as a historical and ideological paradigm. We will address the following points: i) the classic utopian narrative (mode and genre; epochal contexts); ii) Margins of utopia: imaginary travels (Cyrano de Bergerac and Voltaire); iii) confines of utopia: imaginary travels (Voltaire); iv) utopias of privacy (Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre).

Head Lecturer(s)

Cristina Maria Silva Robalo Cordeiro

Assessment Methods

Continuous Assessment
Assiduity: 10.0%
Participation during seminars : 30.0%
Writen works : 60.0%

Bibliography

Dubois, C. (1968). Problèmes de l´Utopie. Paris: Lettres Modernes.

Gannier, O. (2001). La littérature de voyage. Paris: Ellipses.

Racault, J. (1991). L´Utopie narrative en France et en Angleterre (1675-1761). Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation.

Rouvillois, F. (1998). L’Utopie. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion.

Trousson, R. (1975). Voyages aux pays de nulle part — Histoire Littéraire de la pensée utopique. Bruxelles: Éditions de l´Université de Bruxelles.

Vieira, F. & Castilho, M. (2004). Estilhaços de Sonhos. Espaços de utopia. Porto: Edições Quasi.