Module Identifier FR22120  
Module Title NINETEENTH CENTURY FRENCH POETRY  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Professor David A Trotter  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   Seminar. 1 seminar per week  
  Lecture   1 lecture per week  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam2 Hours  60%
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: Two essays of 1500 - 2000 words each  40%
Supplementary Exam2 Hours  100%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Students will acquire analytical skills: they will be able to read critically, with a sensitivity to language or ''textuality'', and with a more sophisticated grasp of the relationship between form and content. The close attention to poetic language will provide a basis for subsequent study of twentieth-century literature and literary theory.

Brief description

This module aims to develop students' close reading skills, while also introducing students to an important episode in the history of European literature. The module will approach a key period in French literature in two different, even opposite ways: on the one hand it will recontextualize the works of poets, setting them against the backdrop of a historical context, and a literary tradition, and on the other hand it will trace the cultural legacy of this period of intense creative activity. The programme will culminate in a study of Mallarme, who has kept his place in the 'avant-garde' for a whole century, affording insights into twentieth-century culture. Lectures will provide the necessary technical knowledge (e.g. versification), and the historical (and literary-historical) context, while seminars will develop students' close reading, or commentary-writing skills.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Baudelaire, Charles Les Fleurs du Mal, Les Petits poemes en prose
Mallarme, Stephane (ed. Bertrand Marchal) (1992) Poesies Gallimard
Rimbaud, Arthur selected texts from
Gautier, Theophile selected texts from
** Recommended Background
Austin, Lloyd James (1987) Poetic principles and Practice: Occasional papers on Baudelaire, Mallarme, Valery CUP
Bowie, Malcolm (1978) Mallarme and the Art of Being Difficult CUP
Bowie, Malcolm (ed) with Fairlie and Finch (1982) Baudelaire, Mallarme, Valery: New essays in honour of Lloyd Austin CUP
Davies, Gardner (1953) Vers une explication rationnelle du Coup de des Corti
Derrida, Jacques (1972) La Double seance in La Dissemination Seuill
Genette, Gerard (1976) Figures Seuil
Lehmann, A. G. (1950) The Symbolist Aesthetic in France 1885-1895 Blackwell
Lloyd, Rosemary (1984) Mallarme 'Poesies' Grant & Cutler
Marchal, Bertrand (1988) La Religion de Mallarme Corti
Pearson, Roger (1996) Unfolding Mallarme Clarendon Press
Richard, Jean-Pierre (1961) L'Univers imaginaire de Mallarme Seuil
Robb, Graham (1996) Unlocking Mallarme Yale Univ. Press
Scherer, Jacques (1977) Grammaire de Mallarme Nizet
Scott, Clive (1988) The Riches of Rhyme Clarendon Press

Journals
Scott, David H.T. (1997) Mallarme and the octosyllabic sonnet, 'French Studeis' , 31 pp. 149-63
Killick, Rachael (1982) Mallarme' 'Quatorzains', Essays in French Literature, XIX pp. 17-33

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5