FRE245H1

Introduction to French Cultural and Literary Studies

This course is a practical introduction to concepts, methods and problems of literary analysis as well as an overview of French artistic culture. Using elements of comparison from fine arts, contemporary and popular culture (including novels and movies) and a variety of emblematic works of French and Francophone literatures (among others: essays by Voltaire, Montesquieu and Simone de Beauvoir; poems by Ronsard, Hugo, Baudelaire and Césaire; excerpts from novels by George Sand, Albert Camus and Patrick Chamoiseau), its objective is to provide students with a practical introduction to the tools of literary analysis, but also to help them better read, understand and appreciate literary texts.