Alexandra K Wettlaufer

In this course we will examine representative works from 19th and 20th-century French literature, from Balzac’s Realism of the 1830s to Duras’s post-modern novel of the 1980s.  We will consider literature in its relation to history, with special attention both to form and style in the development of narrative, prose poetry and avant-garde theatre.  All students will be expected to give one in-class presentation on an aspect of French culture and history related to one of the works we are reading, and this presentation will be turned into a brief (5-7 page) paper.  A final paper on a French novel from this period not included on the syllabus will be due the last day of class.

Gendered Geographies:

Space, Place, and Identity in 19^th-Century France

Required Texts:

Staël, Corinne, ou l’Italie

Chateaubriand, Atala

Duras, Ourika

Sand, Indiana

Balzac, Le Père Goriot

Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

Flaubert, L’Education sentimentale

Zola, Nana

Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus

Course packet of critical texts

            In this course we will consider the questions of gender, genre, space, and place in nineteenth-century France.   In our readings of texts from the Romantic movement through Realism, Naturalism, and Decadence, we will focus on the various ways male and female authors use the ideas of nation, home, city, country, center, and periphery to delineate identities and the ways in which these places and spaces become gendered.  Moreover, we will consider ideas of travel, mobility, circulation, geography, mapping, the exotic/erotic, home, and “away” an in each of these works, both through nineteenth-century critical texts (including excerpts from Staël’s De l’Allemagne, Baudelaire’s Le Peintre de la vie moderne,  Zola’s Le Roman expérimental, etc) as well as readings from contemporary critics such as Foucault, Bourdieu, Bachelard, Benjamin, Terdiman, and Bhabha.

Course Requirements and Grading:

            Class Participation:                 20%

            In-class presentation:             20%

            Short paper:                           20%

            Final paper:                            40%

Description :  In this course we will examine representative works from 19th and 20th-century French literature, from Balzac’s Realism of the 1830s to Duras’s post-modern novel of the 1980s.  We will consider literature in its relation to history, with special attention both to form and style in the development of narrative, prose poetry and avant-garde theatre.  All students will be expected to give one in-class presentation on an aspect of French culture and history related to one of the works we are reading, and this presentation will be turned into a brief (5-7 page) paper.  A final paper on a French novel from this period not included on the syllabus will be due the last day of class.

Required Texts

Balzac, Old Goriot

Baudelaire, Spleen de Paris

Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Proust, Swann’s Way

Colette, The Vagabond

Camus, Exile and the Kingdom

Sartre, No Exit

Duras, The Lover

Description

In this course we will consider eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels about women and their twentieth-century interpretations as films.  Focusing on questions of gender, representation, genre, translation, and narrative form, we will examine these various texts through a variety of critical filters, including history (social, political, literary, filmic), contemporary documents (i.e., Diderot’s essay on “La Femme,” transcripts of the Madame Bovary obscenity trial, etc), and critical theory from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Reading knowledge of French is required; discussions will be held in English.  May be cross listed with WGS as well.

Required Texts and Films

Diderot, La Religieuse (1780)

Rivette, La Religieuse (film,1966)

Balzac, Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu (1832)

Rivette, La Belle Noiseuse (film, 1991)

Dumas, La Dame aux camélias (1848)

Cukor, Camille (film, 1936)

Zeffirelli, La Traviata (film, 1983)

Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857)

Minnelli, Madame Bovary (film, 1949)

Chabrol, Madame Bovary (film, 1991)

Maupassant, “Une Partie de campagne” and “La Maison Tellier” (1881)

Renoir, Une Partie de campagne (film, 1936)

Ophuls, La Maison Tellier (film, 1952)

Mirbeau, Journal d’une femme de chambre (1900)

Renoir, Diary of a Chambermaid (film, 1946)

Buñuel, Diary of a Chambermaid (film, 1964)

Monaco, How to Read a Film

Course packet

Grading:

Participation:             20%

In-Class Presentation: 20%

Short paper:            20%

Final paper:            40%

Possible Texts:

Balzac, Old Goriot

Baudelaire, Spleen de Paris

Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Proust, Swann’s Way

Colette, The Vagabond

Camus, Exile and the Kingdom

Sartre, No Exit

Duras, The Lover

Description

In this course we will examine representative works from 19^th and 20^th-century French literature, from Balzac’s Realism of the 1830s to Duras’s post-modern novel of the 1980s.  We will consider literature in its relation to history, with special attention both to form and style in the development of narrative, prose poetry and avant-garde theatre.  All students will be expected to give one in-class presentation on an aspect of French culture and history related to one of the works we are reading, and this presentation will be turned into a brief (5-7 page) paper.  A final paper on a French novel from this period not included on the syllabus will be due the last day of class.

FR 390M

Spring 2010

Revolutions in Gender and Genre

in Nineteenth-Century France

Professor Alexandra Wettlaufer

WCH 4.104

471-1442

akw@mail.utexas.edu

Office Hours:

T/TH  2:00-4:00 and by appointment

Required Texts

Chateaubriand, Atala et René

Hugo, Hernani

Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (CP)

Balzac, Eugénie Grandet

Sand, Indiana

Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Zola, L’Oeuvre

Course Packet

            All books are available at the University Coop.  A course packet (CP) of required critical readings is available at Speedway Copies in the basement of Dobie at the corner of 21^st and Whitis.  Historical and cultural background for the course may be found at my website, 19^th-Century France: A Visual Resource (NCFVR) at www.laits.utexas.edu/wettlaufer/. If you are not familiar with the history of nineteenth-century France, it is strongly recommended that you consult François Furet’s Revolutionary France 1770-1880, Gordon Wright’s France in Modern Times or another text of your choice along with our readings.  There are multiple copies available at the PCL and on Amazon.

Syllabus

1/19: Course introduction

Romanticism

1/21:    Chateaubriand, Atala

            Mme de Staël, “De la poésie classique et de la poésie romantique” (CP)

            Frow, “Approaching Genre” (CP)

            NCFVR: Timeline 1770-1810; Painting Neoclassicism and Romanticism

1/26:    Atala

1/28:    Atala and René

            Waller, “Being René, Buying Atala: Alienated Subjects and Decorative Objects in

                        Post-Revolutionary France” (CP)

2/2:      Hugo, Hernani

            Hugo, “Préface” de Cromwell (CP)

            NCFVR: Timeline 1820-1830

2/4:      Hernani

            Gautier, Souvenirs du Romantisme

 Realism and Idealism

2/9:      Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (CP)

            Sieburth, “Une Idéologie du lisible: Le phénomène des ‘Physiologies’” (CP)

            NCFVR: Timeline 1830-1840

2/11:    Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (CP)

2/16:    Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (CP)

2/18:    Balzac, Eugénie Grandet

            Balzac, La Comédie humaine, “Avant-Propos” (CP)

            NCFVR: Painting--Realism

2/23:    Eugénie Grandet

2/25:    Eugénie Grandet

            Terdiman, “Discourses of Initiation” (CP)

3/2:      Sand, Indiana

            Moses, French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century (CP)

3/4:      Indiana

            NCFVR: Caricature, Women and Artists

3/9:      Indiana

            Schor, “Idealism in the Novel: Recanonizing Sand” (CP)

3/11:    Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

            Baudelaire, “Le Peintre de la vie moderne” (CP)

            NCFVR: Timeline 1840-1870 

3/23:    Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

3/25:    No Class: Attend INCS Conference 3/26-27

3/30:    Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

            Benjamin, “The Flâneur” (CP)

            NCFVR: Architecture—Old and New Paris

4/1:      Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris

            Benjamin, “Some Motifs in Baudelaire” (CP)

4/6:      Flaubert, Madame Bovary

            Mainardi, “Novels and their Readers” (CP)

            NCFVR: Timeline 1870s

4/8:      Madame Bovary

4/13:    Madame Bovary

4/15:    Madame Bovary

            Brooks, “The Body in the Field of Vision” (CP)

4/20:    Vicente Minnelli, Madame Bovary (film)

            Ladenson, “Emma Bovary Goes to Hollywood” (CP)

Naturalism

4/22:    Zola, L’Oeuvre

            Zola, “Le Roman expérimental” (CP)

4/27:    L’Oeuvre

            Clark, “Olympia’s Choice” (CP)

            NCFVR: Painting, Pre-Impressionism and Impressionism

4/29:    L’Oeuvre; deadline for Final Paper topic approval

5/4:      L’Oeuvre

5/6:      Course conclusion; Final Paper Outline due

Requirements:

            This course is a seminar, thus all students will be expected to attend every meeting, read all assignments, and participate actively in discussions.  Each student will be asked to give one seminar presentation on a topic of her/his choice.  The topics should be related to our subject but not necessarily limited to the specific author/novel and can be historical, cultural, philosophical or literary in their orientation.  The presentation, no more than 20 minutes in length, will then be developed into a short (5-6 pp) paper due one week later.  A final paper (15-20 pp) will be due 10 May.  Final paper topics must be approved no later than 29 April and an outline of the final paper will be due on 6 May.  Failure to meet these deadlines will be factored into the final grade.

Grades:

Participation:                           20%

In-Class Presentation:             20%

Short paper:                             20%

Final paper:                             40%