Littérature anglophone

COURS DE LITTÉRATURE ANGLOPHONE 2024-25

FIRST SEMESTER 

Première année

Aims

- Learning about literature from diverse anglophone cultures, getting acquainted with literary issues and learning how to formulate and present a literary question

Bibliography

- L’analyse textuelle en anglais, Terence Hugues et Claire Patin

- How Poetry Works, Philip Davies Roberts

L1S1 Majeure – UE2 Lire les littératures anglophones - (18h)

DL21EM03

5 groups

Tutors : Yannick Blec, Brigitte Félix, Audrey Fogels, Andrée-Anne Kekeh, Elisa Bognenko

Contents

· This course is an introduction to literature written in English. Drawing primarily on various short literary pieces (poetry, stories, nonfiction, sketches or excerpts from essays), the purpose of this course is for students to learn or improve their ways of critically approaching literary texts from a wide variety of genres and eras in anglophone cultures.

Evaluation

· Reading reports (whether oral or written) of texts studied in class, diverse literary and methodological exercises (how to annotate a text, what to look for in a literary text), reading from a literary text in public… Specifications and a methodological bibliography will be provided by each tutor, along with a list of texts.

***

Deuxième année 

L2 S3 Majeure - UE9 Etude des littératures anglophones : approfondissement (30h)

DL23EM01

3 groups :

=> Group 1 : Elise ANGIOI - Wednesday 12.30-2.00 pm (J004)

Poetry in 20th century United States : innovation and diversity

In the 20th century, the United States went through dramatic social and political struggles and transformation, which was reflected in the various waves of poetic experiments that occurred throughout the century. Poets worked with new forms, new voices, new themes, and even new languages, thus opening the field of poetry to various forms of otherness. The goal of this class will be to get familiar with this very rich poetic history and with the many forms poetry takes throughout the 20th century, and to develop the tools to analyze poetry. In each class, we will read a couple of poets and think about their work in conjunction with its historical and cultural context. Amongst the poets we will read are Edna St Vincent Millay, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lorde... 

The class is very much discussion based, so you are expected to read the poetic material before each class to be able to share your thoughts on the poems (a booklet will be handed out at the beginning of the semester, and will be available online).

Evaluations : literary commentaries (DM & DST) and oral presentations

=> Group 2 : Audrey FOGELS - Monday 3.00-5.30pm (B308)

How literature matters : the case of 19th America 

How can 19th American literature help us grapple with key 21^st century issues ? In what ways can Hawthorne, Melville, Hawthorne or Dickinson enable us to address matters linked to gender construction, scientific progress, labor ? Based on interactive discussions and a close reading of key nineteenth century classic 19th texts, this class will focus on the way literature can serve as imaginative reservoirs to create new ways of thinking and acting in our world. Close attention will be paid to voice, point of view, composition and literary genre.

The class will adopt a workshop format and be based on class discussion, regular group presentations as well as personal essays and or response papers. A brochure of critical texts & additional reading will be handed out at the beginning of the semester. The course will also be on moodle.

=> Group 3 : Stéphane VANDERHAEGHE - Thursday 3.00-5.30pm (J105)

A Brief History of 20^th-Century American Literature : From Modernism to Post-Modernism (& Beyond)

This class will present students with a historical perspective on how literary practices evolved throughout the 20^th century. Based on the study and analysis of texts—be they poems, short stories, or extracts from diverse novels—the class will engage in a discussion of both modernist and post-modernist aesthetics, and will draw comparisons with the American art world. The material for this course will be available on Moodle, and will be completed by the autonomous reading of a novel, to be chosen from a list presented in class.

Evaluations :

• 2 written exams

• 1 oral exercise

• 1 reading report (in the form of a video clip)

*

L2 S3 Mineure - UE11 Commenter le texte littéraire - (30h)

DL23EN04

Tutor : Andrée-Anne Kekeh-Dika 

“A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a re-reader” writer Vladimir Nabokov states in Conferences on Literature (1980). This course will address the ways in which one can actively engage in dealing with the “singularity” of literature (Derek Attridge, 2008). Emphasis will be placed not necessarily on “what” any given literary text may say but on “how” it works, (Morrison, 1970 ; Alferi, 1991). Drawing on various genres and forms (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, interviews…) focus will be placed on the labor of reading and discussing literary material, paying close attention to the various ways in which literature dismisses the too comfortable certainties of the real world and brings out its own “truth” (Dickinson, 1868 ; Paley, 1959 ; Gass, 1996).

Part of the working material and a bibliography will be circulated in class

• Pierre Alféri, Chercher une phrase (1991)

• Derek Attridge, The Singularity of Literature (2008)

• Emily Dickinson, “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” (1868/1945)

• Gass, William, Finding a Form (1996)

• Goldenstein, Jean-Pierre, Entrées en littérature (1990)

• Morrison, Toni, The Bluest Eye (1970)

• Nabokov, Vladimir, Conferences on Literature I (1980)

N.B. Part of the working material and a bibliography will be circulated in class.

Requirements and evaluation

Regular attendance is required in this course. Students must have read course material before coming to class and be prepared to participate in class discussions. Grades will be given for oral participation.

Evaluation will include :

• one or two informal response papers (one-page long) about the topic discussed in class + Oral participation 10%
• Mid-term exam 30%
• Oral exam 20%
• Final exam 40%

*

L2 S3 Mineure Litté, arts et médias - UE11 Argumentation critique - (30h)

DL23EN05

1 group : Johanna GALIS 

Ce cours a pour objectif de développer l’analyse critique de textes littéraires à travers l’étude de méthodes d’argumentation. Il s’agira de pratiquer la construction de son propre point de vue sur deux œuvres littéraires qui seront étudiées pendant le cours. 
Différents documents (articles de presse, articles universitaires, extraits d’œuvres littéraires qui font écho, documents de méthode) seront transmis aux étudiants pendant le cours afin d’affiner la lecture critique des œuvres étudiées et d’ainsi développer une démonstration. Ce cours sera composé de travaux écrits réguliers qui permettront de mettre en pratique certains aspects méthodologiques de l’argumentation critique.

Deux romans seront étudiés pendant le semestre : 

– To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (1960)
– On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong (2019)

Modalités d’évaluation : exercices rédigés en cours ; présentation orale à deux ; DST.

*** 

Troisième année

L3S5 Majeure : UE17 - Etudes des littératures anglophones (niveau avancé) 30h

DL25EM03

=> Group 1 : Brigitte FÉLIX - Wednesday 3.00-5.30pm (J101)

Why read fiction ? Stories and storytelling in 20th and 21st c. American literature

1. Syllabus 
This course will be organized in two parts that will be combined every week :

• The first part of each class will be focused on our reading and discussion of short stories by American writers that question the traditional forms of storytelling and explore new imaginary territories. We will analyze experimental and innovative texts in order to study the variations in the poetics of the short story. We will discuss what reading literary fiction brings to our understanding of the world we live in. 

• The second part of each class will be in the form of a reading workshop where you will work in small groups on Skin Elegies, a novel published in 2021 by contemporary author Lance Olsen. Please try to order the book as soon as possible in order to start reading it on your own before the workshop starts. See Lance Olsen’s website : https://lanceolsen.com

2. Aims

Various short lectures will help you develop a critical reflection based on the reading of some literary theory and criticism about postmodern and contemporary fiction writing. We will also revise and consolidate your skills in literary analysis through the study and commentary of specific passages from the literary texts given in class.

3. Course materials

Photocopies of the short stories as well as photocopies of critical texts and articles will be given in class and will also be available on the Moodle page for this course for online reading, downloading and printing if need be.

4. Assessment and grading will be presented in class.

=> Group 2 : Audrey FOGELS - Tuesday 12.30-3.00pm (J004)

Texts in context : (1865-1913) The Awakening and other stories

Based on a close reading of Kate Chopin’s classic The Awakening (1900), this class will develop students’ critical skills, oral and written abilities, as well as introduce them to the literary and cultural issues key to understanding the writing of American women realists. Topics of discussion will include gender & class construction, racial politics, affects, mental health, labor. Close attention will be paid to voice, point of view, composition and literary genre.

The class will adopt a workshop format and be based on class discussion, regular group presentations as well as personal essays and or response papers. A brochure of critical texts & additional reading will be handed out at the beginning of the semester. The course will also be on moodle.

Critical texts :

Beer, Janet, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin, ed. Janet Beer, (CUP, 2008)

Fetterley, Judith and M. Pryse, Writing out of Place, Regionalism, Women and American Literary Culture, Illinois UP, 2003.

Additional reading :

Rebecca Harding Davies, Life in the Iron Mills (1861)

Sarah Orne Jewett, A White Heron (1886)

Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun (1891)

Kate Chopin, Desirée’s Baby, La Belle Zoraïde (1890)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (1900)

* 

L3 S5 Mineure Litté, arts et médias – UE19 – Atelier et projet – 30h

1 Group : Tutors Vincent BROQUA & Johanna GALIS

In this interactive class, you will write a blog article on a topic that you will choose and that we will discuss. Most of the semester is devoted to conversations about the topics, to writing the articles, to helping each other do it, and to learn how to write in a different style. In other words : while this class has to do with Anglophone culture, it doesn’t have a specific topic. together we will build a class based on your input. 

Aims

- This course is a writing workshop : you produce articles, podcasts, etc. on the literature and culture of English-speaking countries.

- This is also a way to know more about what students do in Master’s degrees (notably MC2L, MLCC, MEEF...). 

- This course will also allow you to explore other formal means of expression within your blog articles.

Exercises

- one short oral presentation and one blog article about a topic relative to anglophone culture

- Discussing each other’s articles

- helping each other with their writing

- during the last six weeks of the semester, you’ll have to find other forms of expression within a second blog article that you’ll write on a topic related to Anglophone culture. 

* * *

SECOND SEMESTER

TBA

.