FRW 4350/6355      Modern French Poetry
Tues. Per. 8-9; Thurs. Per. 9     Dr. Calin
Matherly 9       Spring 1999
 
 

I.  Twentieth-century poetry in France is extraordinarily rich, as rich and dominant as in the other centuries of great French verse. However, compared to the novel, it receives significantly less attention. This is due partly to the fact that prose fiction has replaced verse as the accepted institutional manifestation of literature and literariness, partly to the phenomenon that many poets of modernism consciously create texts abstruse and arcane--as their reaction against a mass public and the alienating currents in modern life. This course will take into account the above current; however, it will concentrate on poets and poems which--more or less abstruse, more or less difficult--engage directly the political and social issues of our time. Roughly three (interlocking) themes or categories will be studied: reactions to modernity and modern life; World War II, the Resistance, and the other side; the French provinces, specifically those regions where poets write in a language (Breton, Occitan) other than French. We shall begin with The Waste Land, on the grounds that (1) it is a masterpiece that every speaker of English should know; and (2) it can be profitable to begin with hard poetry in one's own language.
 

II.   One ten-to-twelve page paper (FRW 4350) or
One twelve-to-fifteen page paper (FRW 6355).
Active participation in seminar discussion.
 

III.   T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land. Harcourt-Brace.
St. J. Perse, Eloges, etc. [Anabase].
  L. Aragon, La Diane française. Seghers.
  R. Brasillac, Poèmes de Fresnes. Plon.
  A U.B.S. Packet. Selections from:
   P. Emmanuel.
   R. Hemon.
   P. Keineg.
   R. Nelli.
   J. Larzac.

 IV.  Jan.   5     Introduction
   7     Eliot
   12     Eliot
   14     Eliot
   19     Eliot
   21     Perse
   26     Perse
   28     Aragon

 Feb.      2     Aragon
     4     Aragon
     9     Aragon
   11     Aragon
   16     Aragon
   18     Emmanuel
   23     Emmanuel
   25     Emmanuel

 March    2     Emmanuel
    4     Brasillac
    9     Secular Holiday
   11     Secular Holiday
   16     Brasillac
   18     Hemon
   23     Hemon
   25     Reading Period
   30     Keineg

 April    1     Keineg
    6     Nelli
    8     Nelli
   13     Larzac
   15     Larzac
   20     Conclusion