Introducing the Novel (271-0-20)
Topic
Through the Eyes of the Other
Instructors
Nasrin Qader
847/491-8263
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-101
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 4-410: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course introduces students to the history of the French and Francophone novel from the eighteenth to the twenty first century. The theme of the course points to a strategy of writing where the "eye of the other" is mobilized either to critique society and/or to capture relations of power and domination. We will ask questions such as how the perspective of the other drives the story line, what it enables the author and the story to do, and what are the political and historical implications of this "eye of the other" at the different junctures in time: the enlightenment, the age of exploration and colonization, the colonial period, and the postcolonial.
In addition to the historical arc, we will also focus on the different genres of the novel, namely the philosophical, the epistolary, the romantic, and the colonial and the postcolonial to understand the specificity of their forms in relation to the questions of of our course. Students will be periodically provided critical essays to become familiar with scholarship on the works and the genres we read. They will also be asked to present critical essays to the class. This assignment enables students to practice researching and determining the relevance of the scholarship for the context of the class while enhancing their French language abilities. The written essays and the presentations together will hone student skills in written and oral French at the academic level.
Learning Objectives
To become familiar with some of the important writers and works in the French and Francophone canon; to understand the development of the French and Francophone novel historically; to learn reading, writing, and speaking about literature critically; to reflect on the intersections between the literature, history, and politics.
Class Materials (Required)
Voltaire Ingénu
Madame de Graffigné Les lettres d'une péruvienne (selections)
Baron de Montesquieu Les lettres persanes (selections)
François August de Chateaubriand Atala
Marguerite Duras L'amant
Ferdinand Oyono--- Une vie de boy
Maïssa Bey-- Entendez-vous dans les montagnes.
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Prerequisite: Students must have completed FRENCH 210-0 or FRENCH 211-0. Other students may register with instructor permission.