French
415/515
French
Literature of the Renaissance: Poetry
Course
Description:
This
course
will examine French Poetry of the sixteenth century. We will
cover the principal poetic movements, schools, and tendencies of the
French
Renaissance including les Grands Rhétoriqueurs, l'École lyonnaise,
la Pléiade, and poésie engagée. The course will focus
on a limited number of poems representative of these tendencies
featuring
authors such as Marot, Labé, Du Bellay, Ronsard, d'Aubigné.
We will also study some brief prose excerpts from the era relevant to
poetry,
such as the Défense et illustration de la langue française,
as well as articles by modern historians/critics. Class
discussions
and lectures will involve a combination of detailed exegesis of the
authors'
works and synthetic contextualization, tying the texts into significant
cultural, artistic, philosophical and historical trends and events of
the
French Renaissance era.
Students
will write two short papers (700-1000 words for graduates and 350-700
words
for undergraduates) and a final term paper (2600-3300 words for
graduates,
1700-2300 words for undergraduates). The course is conducted in
French.
Link
to
Syllabus