Module I History of French Literature from 1870 to the present day
The course will be structured as follows. Students are however required to study all authors in the reference manual.
The 19th century
• The historical context: the Franco-Prussian war and the fall of the Second Empire; the Commune; the Troisième République; colonialism;
• Naturalism: economic and social transformations; the sciences; naturalist doctrine; the experimental novel; the philosophical context; psychology and physiology; the authors: Émile Zola; Guy de Maupassant; Edmond and Jules de Goncourt;
• Poetry: Paul Verlaine; Arthur Rimbaud; Stéphane Mallarmé; Symbolism;
• The fin-de-siècle: decadence; between crisis and experimentalism; theatre.
The 20th century
• The historical context: the apogee of the European powers (1900-1914); the proletariat and women; the Belle Époque; the two world wars;
• The poetry of the twentieth century: Guillaume Apollinaire; Paul Valéry; Francis Ponge;
• The novel of the twentieth century: crisis of the novel and new horizons; the war novel; the river novel; the novel between the two wars; the new ways of the novel; the authors: André Gide; Marcel Proust; Céline; the Nouveau Roman;
• The age of Surrealism;
• Existentialism and Absurdity;
• The theatre of the twentieth century: the theatre from 1919 to 1939; the Nouveau Théâtre.

The module will analyze some passages of the most significant works of the period that will be verified during the final test:
1. Émile ZOLA, L’Assommoir, chronologie et introduction par J. Dubois, Paris, GF Flammarion, 1969, pp. 72-73.
2. Joris-Karl HUYSMANS, À Rebours, présentation, notes, dossier, chronologie, bibliographie par D. Grojnowski, Paris, GF Flammarion, 2014, pp. 83-85.
3. Arthur RIMBAUD, «Aube», Illuminations, in Œuvres complètes, édition établie, présentée et annotée par Antoine Adam, Paris, nrf-Gallimard («Bibliothèque de la Pléiade»), 1972, p. 140.
4. Stéphane MALLARMÉ, «Brise marine», Poésies, in Œuvres complètes, texte établi et annoté par H. Mondor et G. Jean-Aubry, Paris, nrf-Gallimard («Bibliothèque de la Pléiade»), 1945, p. 38.
5. Marcel PROUST, Du côté de chez Swann, Paris, Gallimard («Folio»), 1954, pp. 58-62.
6. Paul VALÉRY, «La Fileuse», Album de vers anciens, in Œuvres, édition établie et annotée par J. Hytier, Paris, nrf-Gallimard («Bibliothèque de la Pléiade»), 1957, t. I, pp. 75-76.
7. André GIDE, Les faux-monnayeurs, Paris, Gallimard («Folio»), 1972, pp. 82-84.
8. Samuel BECKETT, En attendant Godot, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1952, Acte II, pp. 95-99.
9. Claude SIMON, La Route des Flandres, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1960, pp. 9-13.

Module II: Intellectual autobiography in the 20th century
• mémoires and autobiography;
• birth and definition of the autobiographical genre;
• the evolution of the genre in the nineteenth century;
• the characteristics of the childhood story;
• childhood tale and construction of intellectual personality in the twentieth century;
• André Gide: the identity, the loss of the father and the relationship with the mother, the discovery of Eros, the intellectual conscience; Si le grain ne meurt;
• Jean-Paul Sartre: the early orphanage, the discovery of physicality, physicality and intellectuality, the library and reading, the isolation of the enfant prodige; Les Mots.