FOCUS ON LITERARY GENRE

MANUSCRIT SOUS PRESSE - PRESSES UNIVERSITAIRES

I teach how to read and reread a text based on lectures about theory and practice, classroom discussions around selected articles and literary text studies. One novel is chosen for the illustration of the practice of literary analysis.

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(1er Cycle)

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Course Objectives:

By the end of the year, students will be able 

• to know how to read and reread a literary text 

• to identify literary devices and study them through a structuralist approach

• to study the literary text through a socio-historical approach

• to study the literary text through a feminist approach 

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Course Description:

Each session will be dedicated to the study of theory and the understanding of the use of theoretical concepts. Students are then taught how to use these tools or theoretical concepts in their study of literary texts.  

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Teaching Method:

Each session deals with:

1. The "Learning How to Learn" method of reading and rereading each chapter of the novel in order to detect through an empirical study the whole structure of the novel.

2. First, students pick up literary devices. Then, they build diagrams representing them; for each literary device, words detected in the text are built into semantic groups. 

3. Findings are then studied using the framework of a structuralist approach, then step-by-step, using the post-structuralist approach where new socio-historical tools are proposed.

The teaching method is based on lectures on theory and practice, classroom discussions around selected articles and literary text studies. One novel is chosen for the illustration of the practice of literary analysis.

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We have all been taught the meaning of a novel in a traditional way. Before we are introduced to the practice of literary study, I give students an overview of the genre specific to the novel.

The origin of the novel is the Picaresque narrative which emerged in 16th century Spain as a distinct genre. It became a popular form of entertainment, following the success of La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). A vehicle for satire, the Picaresque Narrative is generally presented in the first person and consists of unconnected episodes held together by the presence of the central character. Realistic details, usually drawn from the life of lower social classes, tend to be coarse.

The subgenre of the romance is then introduced. Historically, the term romance is applied to three distinct bodies of writing. The Greek romances of Daphnis and Chloe of Longus, complicated tales of idealized lovers separated by pirates, can be associated to the later Middle Ages tales of love and chivalric adventure, in both verse and prose. The Arthurian legends and stories that centered on Charlemagne can also be put in that category. In romances, the stress is on the power of love, both legitimate and illegitimate, and on chivalric virtues such as courage, grace, loyalty and honor. Since the 19th century, the term romance has also been used to delineate works that are predominantly exotic or adventurous such as some of Sir Walter Scott’s novels and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, as well as Cooper, Melville and Twain’s works which feature some romance elements, such as symbolic quests and characters who are embodiments of good and evil.

The course avoids the thematic approach, and first dives into a structuralist approach as we study Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Students are taught how to read and reread a text to be able to analyse it. They learn how to move from reading for pleasure to reading for academic purposes, in the study of the structure - "the plot" (forms such as paragraphs, sentences and words). They are also introduced to the new terminology used in literary analysis. 

For instance, I deliberately devote a large amount of time to a feminist analysis of the novel. Women’s right to education, work and financial independence are central to the story, making feminist theory the right approach to use. Through her struggle, Jane is both a dependent and independent woman - a servant and a rebel. She becomes a teacher, a governess, and refuses to be the missionary wife flat character. 

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Assessment Method: 

Test: (1) the identification of literary devices (theoretical concepts) in the text; (2) the ability to define them and write a structuralist piece of criticism on a literary text.

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Exam: Questions are given to students to test their capacity to use both theory and practice, as they socio-historically analyze a literary text.