Littérature anglophone

COURS DE LITTÉRATURE ANGLOPHONE 2023-24

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

6 groups

Tutors : Yannick Blec, Brigitte Félix, Audrey Fogels, Andrée-Anne Kekeh, Anne Chassagnol, Juliette Mélia

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.

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Deuxième année 

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

DL23EM01

3 groups :

=> Groups 1 & 2 : How Literature Matters : the case of 19th century America (Tutor : Audrey Fogels) (Monday 12:30-3:00pm or Tuesday 12:30-3:00pm)

How can 19th-century American literature help us grapple with the issues of the 21st century ? In what ways can Whitman, Douglass, Dickinson, Melville or Poe enable us to address matters linked to citizenship, climate change or new masculinities ? Based on interactive discussion and a close reading of classic 19c texts as well as on film extracts and paintings, this class will focus on the way literature and art in general can serve as imaginative reservoirs to create new ways of thinking and acting in our world. 

The class will adopt a workshop format and be based on class discussion, regular group presentations as well as personal essays. 

=> Group 3 : An Introduction to Dystopian and Utopian fiction : From H.G Wells to the Present (Tutor : Marie Baudoin) (Thursday : 9:00-11:30am)

This course will focus on the paired concepts of utopia and dystopia in literature through readings in fiction, essays, feminist and posthuman theory. We will pay particular attention to how literary imaginings of utopian and dystopian fictions invite us to reconsider the social, political, ecological and material conditions of the world we inhabit. It will bring us to question the birth of the genre of science fiction and/or speculative fiction. We will consider examples in both British and American literature. The students will be provided with a handbook of short stories, essays and excerpts from major novels.

Requirements and Evaluation :

• One or two informal response papers about topics discussed in class
• 2 written exams

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

DL23EN04

Tutor : Andrée-Anne Kekeh-Dika (Monday 12:30-3:00pm)

“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.
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)
• Vladimir Nabokov, Conferences on Literature. I (1980)
• Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974)

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%

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

DL23EN05

1 group : Wednesday 3.00-4.30pm

This class aims at improving the students’ critical analysis based on various excerpts from literary classics from the 20th century/beginning of the 21st century.

Starting with four excerpts from four novels - American and British – students will have to study first the text in itself, then the way it was received by journalists through time, before finally focusing on the way these texts have been analyzed by major literary scholars.

This process will then be related to the study of different critical points of view based on the texts. Students will then be able to look at the link between some major literary voices and the way they are received by their readers, and the way this process has been evolving through time, with regards to very specific social and political contexts.

In order to learn how to shape their own critical thoughts on these texts, students will have – as part of a regular reading practice – to learn how to demonstrate their own point of view in written exercises, based on some of the techniques found in the articles studied in class. All documents will be handed out in class.

Assessment : regular written exercices during our classes ; DST ; an essay that will be written with another student ; an oral presentation.

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Troisième année

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

DL25EM03

=> Group 1 : Stories and storytelling in postmodern and contemporary American fiction (1960s-2020s) (Tutor : Brigitte Félix) (Wednesday 3.00-5.30pm)

In this course we will read and study short stories by American writers that question the traditional forms of storytelling and explore new imaginary territories. We will focus on experimental and innovative texts in order to study the variations in the poetics of the short story. This will also lead us to discuss more generally what we expect when reading literary fiction and the significance of storytelling in our world today. 

We will also see how to develop a critical reflection based on the reading of some literary theory about the short story as a genre and about the specificities of postmodern and contemporary fiction writing. You will consolidate your skills in literary analysis through the study and commentary of specific passages. 

Photocopies of the short stories will be given in class and will be available on the Moodle page for this course for online reading.

In addition to the short stories, you will be required to read the following novel by American novelist Lance Olsen : Skin Elegies (Dzanc, 2021) which you will discuss in group work sessions during the reading workshop we will hold regularly after week 2. Please order and buy the book as soon as possible.

Assessment and grading : 

· written and oral exercises/presentations in class (20%)

· reading workshop (20%)

· 1 in-class writing (commentary/essay) around midterm (30%)

· 1 final exam (commentary/essay) at the end of the semester (30%)

=> Group 2 : From modern to digital : 1922 in 2023 (Joyce, Woolf, Eliot) (Tutor : Claire Joubert) (Thursday 3.00-5.30pm)

In 2022, the British literary scene celebrated the 100th anniversary of the miracle year of Modernism, which saw into print some of the key works that would shape 20th and 21st century literature : James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room, and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. The course seeks to study this event, rediscovering these modern classics one hundred years on (methods of text analysis), and exploring how the conditions of writing, reading and literary criticism have changed in the age of digital culture (training in issues of literary history). 

Texts under study :

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land [1922], in Selected Poems, London, Faber, 1954
James Joyce, excerpts from Ulysses [1922], Oxford University Press, 2008
Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room [1922], Oxford University Press, 1992

+ critical essays provided in progress, posted on Moodle.

Work schedule : weekly preparations, 1 essay based on text analysis, 1 dissertation. 

* 

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

1 Group : Wednesday 12.30-3.00 (Tutor : Vincent Broqua)

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

Première année

L1 S2 Majeure – UE6 Lire les littératures anglophones 2 - (18h)

Aims

· Introducing students to the basics of literary analysis and close reading

Contents

· In-depth continuation of the skills learnt during the first semester. The focus will be on how to comment a literary text (questions of viewpoints, plot, characterization, rhythm, imagery…). As for the first semester, a list of texts from a variety of genres and eras will be provided by each tutor

Evaluation

· Students will be asked to write or present critical reports, introductions to literary commentaries, short analytical paragraphs… 

Bibliography

Each tutor will provide their own bibliography and list of texts studied.

* * *

Deuxième année

L2 S4 Majeure- UE13 Etude des littératures anglophones : Approfondissement - (30h)

DL24EM01

=> Group 1 : Gendering the Nation : Willa Cather, O Pioneers !

Teacher : Audrey Fogels

Based on a close and comprehensive reading of Cather’s 1913 classic text about the American frontier, this class will help develop students’ critical, oral and written skills as well as introduce them to the cultural and literary context key to understanding Cather’s novel (realism ; wilderness ; frontier ; pioneers/pilgrims ; transcendentalism). The class will adopt various critical approaches and have students think about the representation of gender, immigrants, culture and America Cather seeks to portray in her novel.

The class will be based on class discussion, regular group presentations as well as personal essays.

It is strongly recommended to buy the Oxford World Classics edition before the beginning of the class.

=> Group 2 : Introduction to 20th c. US poetics : the diversity of modern poetries

Teacher : Elise Angioi

In the 20th century, the United States went through dramatic social and political change, 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 look at are Edna St Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsburg, 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), pop quizz. 

=> Group 3 : An Introduction to Children’s Literature and YA Fiction in Ten Objects

Teacher : Anne Chassagnol

In this module, we will revisit classic children’s books via a series of iconic objects – maps, keys, rings, dresses, shoes, beds, wands, mirrors, dolls and teddy-bears. Starting with fairy tales and their adaptations, we will focus on a variety of different genres, such as picture-books, illustrated texts, graphic novels, or fantasy. The objective of the class will be to combine Thing Theory and material culture to connect recurrent literary motifs and understand the meaning of these inanimate objects, object stories and object-narrators. We will also question the nature of these objects : do they operate on a metaphorical, magical, narrative, educational, or transitional level ? Students will be expected to read a selection of short texts from the following writers : JM Barrie, Malorie Blackman, Lewis Carroll, Kate DiCamillo, Tove Jansson, Judith Kerr, Jon Klassen, Winsor McCay, AA. Milne, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Maurice Sendak, Shaun Tan, PL Travers.

Assessment :

- Students will be asked to do an oral presentation in English based on an object story in a children’s book of their choice.

- 2 written exams in class (mid-term + final exam)

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L2 S4 Mineure Litté, arts et médias - UE15 Littérature et arts - (36h)

Tutors : Anne Chassagnol & Stéphane Vanderhaeghe

The aim of this class is to approach literature through the lens of visual arts, with an emphasis on the role played by the image, whether fixed or in motion. The class will be divided into two parts : the first part, more panoramic in scope, will be devoted to diverse interactions between art and literature, and to literary genres that revolve around pictures (picture books, illustrated books, comics, graphic novels, etc.). Along with the texts, several paintings inspired from literary works will be studied. The second part of the class will focus more specifically on the interactions between cinema and literature, and will tackle the question of adaptation, however from a literary perspective : what happens when the text adapts movies, rather than the other way around ? We will have a look at A Night at the Movies (1987), by Robert Coover, a collection of stories that parody or rewrite famous Hollywood movies and borrow from cinematic techniques to move the story forward.

Evaluation : oral exercises and/or presentations + 2 written exams (one for each part of the class)

 * * *

Troisième année

L3 S6 Majeure – UE21 - Etudes des littératures anglophones : niveau avancé 30h

DL26EM01

=> Group 1 : The Scarlet Letter : Gender trouble and the making of a nation 

Teacher : Audrey Fogels

Based on a close and comprehensive reading of Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, this class will help develop students’ critical, oral and written skills as well as introduce them to the cultural issues and literary tools key to understanding Hawthorne’s seminal novel. The class will vary critical approaches, expecting students to develop their own personal reading. Attention will be given to representations of masculinity and femininity, to debates about family, kinship and citizenship as well as to questions of interpretation and reading.

The class will adopt a workshop format and be based on class discussion, regular group presentations as well as personal essays. A brochure of critical texts & references will be handed out at the beginning of the semester.

It is strongly recommended to buy the Penguin edition to The Scarlet Letter before the beginning of the class.

=> Group 2 : Crisis Fiction - The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

Teacher : Stéphane Vanderhaeghe

This class will focus on The Flame Alphabet (2012) by Ben Marcus ; we will study how the literary depiction of a fictional crisis—here a peculiar language disease spread by children—affects the literary text in return. Not only is Marcus’s novel about a crisis, it also appears to be a crisis fiction, or a fiction itself undergoing a crisis. Part dystopia, part postapocalyptic novel, part speculation, The Flame Alphabet challenges conventional notions of how a novel operates and raises both aesthetic and critical issues that are paramount to a redefinition of contemporary American fiction. Students will also be asked to read another novel by a different writer to complement the class.

Students should acquire and read the novel before the beginning of the class.

Evaluation : class discussions, oral presentations, written exercises, 1 final exam, 1 reading report

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L3 S6 Mineure Litté, arts et médias – UE23 – Atelier et projet 2 – 30h

Par rapport à l’atelier du S5 (mutualisé avec Sociétés, culture, politique), l’orientation de cet atelier sera littéraire.

Teachers : Vincent Broqua et Brigitte Félix

Objectifs

Cours entre le cours traditionnel et l’atelier. On travaille à créer des textes, podcasts, vidéos, des présentations, des dossiers thématiques, des comptes rendus de lecture, sur une œuvre littéraire, un thème, un auteur/une autrice… pour alimenter le blog du département

· Préparer aux masters (notamment MC2L, MLCC, MEEF…), dans la suite de « Commenter le texte littéraire » de L2S3 et de « Argumentation critique de L2S4 »

· Expérimentation avec des formes d’écriture & de lecture

· Travail avec des outils : expérimentations avec la littérature numérique

Exercices

· travail en groupe, présentations orales diversifiées, élaboration de podcasts

· Expérimentation avec des formes d’écriture & de lecture  

Evaluation sera précisée en début de semestre

· Mini-oraux

· Présentations à plusieurs, productions collectives ou individuelles (ppt, podcast)

· Dossiers et comptes rendus

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