This class will introduce students to essential voices in French and Francophone poetry, from the mid-nineteenth century to the contemporary era. It will focus on the emergence of poetic modernity, through some key themes such as the representation of identity and the self; the idea of dissonance; the conflict between realism and the fantastic; and the complex relation with the French language and French literary tradition.
We will read poetry by Charles Baudelaire; Arthur Rimbaud; Jules Laforgue; Guillaume Apollinaire; and the Surrealists Robert Desnos, René Char, and Gisèle Prassinos. Selections from Francophone literature will introduce poetry from a broad array of geographical areas and cultures, including French Guyana (Léon-Gontran Damas); Senegal (Léopold Sedar Senghor); Lebanon (Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Salah Stétié); Algeria (Kateb Yacine, Assia Djebar); and Martinique (Edouard Glissant). Conducted in French.
Requisite: One of the following--French 207, 208 or the equivalent. Fall semester: Professor Katsaros.
Keywords
Attention to Issues of Class, Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality, Attention to Issues of Race, Attention to Research, Attention to Speaking, Attention to Writing, Languages Other Than English
Offerings
2022-23: Not offered Other years: Offered in Fall 2021