851-0347-00L  The Worlds of Literature

SemesterSpring Semester 2021
LecturersD. Eribon
Periodicitynon-recurring course
Language of instructionFrench


AbstractWe will try to see how literature has tackled multiple historical, social, political questions by inscribing them in individual and collective trajectories, through biographical, autobiographical, autofictional, autoanalytical writing.
ObjectiveIn this light, we will reread French-speaking authors such as Paul Nizan, Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Edouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Patrick Chamoiseau, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, Violette Leduc, Annie Ernaux, Edouard Louis… By placing their works next to those of non-French-speaking authors who proceed in a comparable manner.
Content"I was born in 1842" writes Assia Djebar in the first volume of her autobiography, “L’amour, la fantasia”, published in 1985. That is, when the French colonial troops burned down the village of her ancestors. For her, born in 1936, restoring her personal history therefore amounts to restoring and exploring the history of Algeria for a century and a half. Taking this striking example as a starting point, we will try to see how literature has tackled multiple historical, social, political questions by inscribing them in individual and collective trajectories, through biographical, autobiographical, autofictional, autoanalytical writing. In this light, we will reread French-speaking authors such as (among others, of course) Paul Nizan, Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Edouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Patrick Chamoiseau, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, Violette Leduc, Annie Ernaux, Edouard Louis… By placing their works next to those of non-French-speaking authors who proceed in a comparable manner.
Prerequisites / NoticeDer Kurs wird online als Webinar stattfinden.