One of the main aims of this Course of Study is to provide students with advanced knowledge of two foreign literatures related to the two languages of their choice, paying special attention to intercultural and transcultural dynamics. The course also aims at refining their ability to interpret cultural phenomena, using the tools and methodologies of literary, cultural and historical analysis. French Literature I is among the characterizing activities of the "Foreign Literatures" area. It provides the student with initial knowledge and understanding of 20th-century French contemporary literary culture through the reading of novels. It helps students discover the tools and methodologies of literary, cultural and historical analysis. At the end of the module, students will be able to read and understand literary texts employing the analytical methods and tools they will have learned in class; furthermore, they will possess the necessary communicative skills to re-elaborate the acquired disciplinary contents.
Canali
teacher profile teaching materials
A. Camus, La Peste, Folio, 1985.
Programme
Engagement: Engagement in 20th century French literature, from Sartre's Nausée to Camus' Plague. The course will address the function that the French novel was able to assume as an instrument of awakening ethical and civic consciousness in the dramatic historical landscape of the first half of the 20th century. In particular, the two masterpieces by Sartre and Camus will be analysed, focusing the figure of a fictional hero who matures the awareness of having to take responsibility, especially political responsibility, for his own becoming, and that of the society in which he is called to live.Core Documentation
J.-P. Sartre, La Nausée, Folio, 2016.A. Camus, La Peste, Folio, 1985.
Reference Bibliography
Jacques Déguy commente « La Nausée », Foliothèque, Gallimard, 1993. Jacqueline Lévy-Valensi commente « La Peste », Foliothèque Gallimard, 1991. A critical bibliography in italian will be available at the beginning of the course.Attendance
Weekly lessons during the first semester (ocrober-december 2025)Type of evaluation
Oral examination, in Italian, of the reading of the two novels in the programme and the relevant critical bibliography indicated. teacher profile teaching materials
The course will examine three twentieth-century French novels, to investigate transformations and declinations of the genre in the period from the First World War to the 1960s.
M. Proust, Du côté de chez Swann
A. Camus, Le premier homme
S. de Beauvoir, Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée
Programme
French novel in the twentieth centuryThe course will examine three twentieth-century French novels, to investigate transformations and declinations of the genre in the period from the First World War to the 1960s.
Core Documentation
Course materialM. Proust, Du côté de chez Swann
A. Camus, Le premier homme
S. de Beauvoir, Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée
Reference Bibliography
Further readings A. Compagnon, Proust tra due secoli, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, only introduction and chapter 1. T. Judt, The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1998, capitolo 2, “The Reluctant Moralist: Albert Camus and the Discomforts of Ambivalence”. P. Cattani, Simone de Beauvoir, Roma, Carocci, 2025 (forthcoming).Attendance
Non mandatoryType of evaluation
Questions in Italian