http://web.cortland.edu/flteach/wksp/nysaflt2016.html
Why do we study literature in a French language class?
Textual exegesis vs. rich language models and cultural insights, explicit or implicit.
Sources from my classes: Survey of French Literature ME-17e & 18e-present; French Realism; The Couple & the Role of Women in French Literature; French Cinema.
Literature in the French classroom can and should emphasize the cultural context of the work and how it relates to and connects to French culture in the present day. We will examine a series of short French texts from the middle ages to the present day, exploring their cultural background and seeking their ties to current music, events, and cultural products and practices. Copies of appropriate excerpts will be made available along with the perspectives that are our main focus. Items are selected from my own Elementary French and Survey of Literature classes with an effort to design instruction for a variety of levels.
A. What does Disney's Lilo & Stitch have to do with French Romanticism?
B. "It's so romantic!" (lovey-dovey, candles & flowers?)
- le culte du moi (l'expression libre de l'individu, du poète)
- la raison vs. la passion (la place de l'émotion forte et de l'expérience authentique)
- la nature (l'amour libre du jugement corrompu de la société)
C. Elvis Presley: Romantic influence? Can't Help Falling in Love
Christine de Pisan (1364-1430)
She was the first woman writer in France to live by her work. (Ditié de Jeanne d'Arc, Cent ballades d'amant et de dame, la Cité des dames) She spoke Italian, French, and Latin, but wrote in French. Married at the age of 15. Her husband died, leaving her with three children and a niece to raise. What was it like for a woman in the 14th century?
This historical novel offers a new look back to a rethinking of the middle ages. In part this was a reaction against the revolution's rejection of the French historical past of aristocratic privilege in favor of republican principles of Rome. What can we find in this period of transition? new media, new ideas, a renaissance, recognition of poverty in class differences.
The Franco-Québecois "comédie musicale" Notre Dame de Paris (Plamondon & Cocciante, 1998) follows Hugo's sign posts from the present day back to the 19th century and from there back to the end of the middle-ages. What are the cultural connections that let us trace social problems over such distant periods?
René Clément, Jeux interdits (1951)
Claude Autant-Lara, La Traversée de Paris (1956)
François Truffaut, Le Dernier Métro (1980)
Ces trois films illustrent des aspects différents de la guerre et de l'occupation de la France.