French 345 - Illuminations: An Introduction to Modern French and Francophone Poetry

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 2024: Professor Katsaros.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Instruction in languages other than English, emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work, some visual and aural analysis, some creative work.