History of French Literature 1

General study of the French literature from the 19th century until nowadays.
The theoretical part deals with the study of the different movements of French literature from the 19th century.
The practical part consists of the analysis of the different French literary texts of the syllabus.

I. 19th Century
Historical introduction to the 19th century.

Part 1. Romanticism: Novels, poetry and theater.
General characteristics of Romanticism; the importance of feelings and of imagination, the relationship with nature, the “Mal du siècle”. Poetry. Romantic theatre. V. Hugo and the romantic drama.

Part 2. Balzac
Le père Goriot. Heroes and society. The novels of Balzac

Part 3. Parnasse, Baudelaire and modernity.
Parnasse. The search for formal perfection.
C. Baudelaire, the poet of modernity. Les fleurs du mal. «Correspondances », and the “synesthesies”. Spleen and the Ideal

Part 4. Realism and naturalism. G. Flaubert. Madame Bovary. G de Maupassant.
G. de Maupassant. The short story. The realistic technique and pessimism. Boule de Suif.

Part 5. Symbolism.
The use of symbols. The search of formal perfection. Recurring themes. Symbolism in poetry and theater. M. Maeterlinck. La mort de Tintagiles.

II. 20th century
Historical introduction to the 20th century.

Part 6. M. Proust.
A la recherche du temps perdu. Narrative technique, time, characters.

Part 7. Dadaism and Surrealism
Dadaism, the theories, manifestations and artistic realisations.
Surrealism. The theories and the writing techniques. The life of the group. Surrealistic poetry: the poets and their evolution

Part 8. Existentialism
Theories. Authors. A. Camus. La peste. The absurd and the humanism in A. Camus.

Part 9. The “Nouveau Roman”.
Characteristics of the “Nouveau Roman”. Authors and their work. Alain Robbe-Grillet, Michel Butor, Claude Simon, Nathalie Sarraute.

Part 10. Absurdism in theater
Main features of the absurd theater. S. Beckett, En attendant Godot.

Part 11. Theater and contemporary novels.
The contemporary theatre. B.-M. Koltès. Le retour au desert; Koltès´writing.
Contemporary novels, their main features and the main authors.

Mandatory Readings

1. V. HUGO. María Tudor
2. H.BALZAC, Le père Goriot
3. C.BAUDELAIRE, El spleen de Paris
4. G.de MAUPASSANT "Boule de suif" "Les deux amis" y los cuentos indicados en clase.
5. Poésies de A.RIMBAUD et S.MALLARMÉ
6. A.GIDE, Les Faux-Monnayeurs
7. A.CAMUS, La peste
8. S. BECKETT, En attendant Godot
9. B.-M. KOLTÈS, Combat de nègres et de chiens
10. J. POMMERAT, Cet enfant
11. P.MICHON, Les vies minuscules

Further mandatory readings will be assigned during class.

Histories of literature:
BANCQUART, M.C., CAHNÉ, P., Littérature française du XXe siècle, Paris: PUF.
BEAUMARCHAIS, J.P. de, et al., Dictionnaire des littératures de langue française, Paris: Bordas.
COUTY, D. (dir.), Histoire de la littérature française, Paris: Larousse.
LIGNY, C. de, La littérature française, Paris: Repères Nathan.
MICHEL, A., BECKER, C., BURY, M., BERTHIER, P., MILLET, D., Littérature française du XIXe siècle, Paris: PUF.
MITTERAND, H., (dir), Histoire de la littérature française, Paris: Nathan.
PRADO, J. de, Historia de la literatura francesa, 2 v., Madrid: Cátedra.
TADIÉ, J.Y., Introduction à la vie littéraire du XIXe siècle, Paris: Dunod.

Complementary bibliography:
BURY, M. (1994) La poétique de Maupassant, Paris: Sedes.
CASANOVA, P. (1997) Beckett l´abstracteur: anatomie d´une révolution littéraire, Paris: Seuil.
CROUZET M. (1981) Stendhal et le langage, Paris: Corti.
DELEUZE, G. (1964) Proust et les Signes, Paris, P.U.F., 1964.
MÉLANÇON, M., (1976) Albert Camus analyse de sa pensée, Fribourg, Editions Universitaires Fribourg Suisse.
NADEAU, M. (1964) Histoire du Surréalisme, Paris: Seuil.
PEYRE, H. (1974) Qu´est ce qu´est le symbolisme ? Paris: PUF.
RAYMOND, M. (1978) De Baudelaire au surréalisme, Paris: Corti.
TADIE, J.-Y., (1971) Proust et le roman, Paris, Ed. Gallimard, 1971.
UBERSFELD, A. (1974) Le roi et le bouffon, Etude sur le théâtre de Hugo de 1830 à 1839. Paris: Corti.
VAN THIEGEM, Ph. (1971) Le romantisme français, Paris: PUF.

Ability to recognize and characterize the literary movements and the most important authors of the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Comprehension of the literary texts and their formal characteristics as regards their function and social space.

The teaching of this course will combine lecture and discussion of literary texts.
The class will be taught in Spanish and French

Class attendance is compulsory.

The grade will depend on a final exam.
A final exam will be held before Christmas. Students who have not passed this exam will be able to sit the official exam.
As a prerequisite for passing this course, students must have reached a level of A2 in French before the end of the course.


In the June exam, 100% of the score will result from the written exam.

Those who are officially allowed to not attend classes may choose to take both partial exams or only the final exam: in the latter case, 100% of the grade will depend on the written test.

Two hours of personal work per each session hour.

Active participation in class and continued study.
Basic knowledge of French is required.

The class will be taught mainly in French.


In cases of fraudulent completion of exercises or tests, the provisions of the Regulations on the Evaluation of Students' Academic Performance and the Revision of Grades shall apply