French Literature and the Sacred:
From the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century
I. We will look at the tradition of sacred literature, crucial
to our understanding the history of Western culture yet often neglected
in contemporary literary studies. Scrutiny of Christian-oriented
books and the function of the writer in this context; the meeting of and
tension between the sacred and the secular, including anti-Christian satire;
in the twentieth century a more varied, problematic response with Muslim
and Jewish voices, texts in French from outside the Hexagon, and texts
in the great regional languages. Most importantly, we will read these
works as literature, from a number of modern critical perspectives, including
Freudian, Jungian, Marxist, reader response, gender-related, and intertextual.
II. One twelve-to-fifteen page paper.
Active seminar discussion.
III. Chanson de Roland
Miracles
Villon, selections
Poésie baroque
Voltaire, La Pucelle (selections)
Cheikh Hamidou Kane, L'Aventure ambiguë
Elie Wiesel, La Nuit
Bernard Manciet, L'Enterrament a Sabres (selections)
(Occitan)
IV. Jan. 11 Introduction
18 Chanson de Roland
25 Chanson de Roland
Feb. 1 Chanson de Roland
8 Miracles,
selections (UBS)
15 Villon, selections (UBS)
22 Poésie baroque
(Rousset anthology)
March 1 Poésie
baroque
(Rousset anthology)
8 Secular Holiday
15 Poésie baroque
22 Voltaire, La Pucelle,
selections (UBS)
29 Reading Period
April 5 Kane, L'Aventure ambiguë
12 Wiesel, La Nuit
19 Manciet, L'Enterrament a
Sabres, selections (UBS)