The course, titled: "Lost illusions: the training trip between 18th and 19th century" focuses on the training novel, a subject of fundamental importance for the european culture. The comparison between the training novel of 18th (Montesquieu, Diderot, Voltaire) and 19th century (Stendhal, Balzac), will allow us to investigate the mutual influence between France and Germany (Goethe, Heine).
Voltaire, "Micromégas, Zadig, Candide", Garnier-Flammarion
"L'Ingénu", "Folioplus classiques",Gallimard, 2004.
Diderot, "Jacques le Fataliste", Garnier-Flammarion
Stendhal, "Le Rouge et le Noir", "Folio-Classiques", Gallimard
Balzac, "Illusions perdues", "Folio-Classiques", Gallimard
* The reference texts are available at the Librairie Française de Florence, Piazza Ognissanti.
COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS:
Cervantes, "Don Quijote"
Montesquieu, "Lettres persanes"
Jonathan Swift, "Gulliver's Travels"
Voltaire, "Micromégas"
Diderot, "Supplément au voyage de Bougainville"
Sterne, "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy"
Germaine De Staël, "Corinne ou l'Italie"
Goethe, "Die Leiden von Jungen Werther"
Goethe, "Wilhelm Meister"
Heine, "Reisebilder"
Flaubert, "L'Education sentimentale"
Maupassant, "Bel-Ami"
CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY* (two works at student's choice from all categories)
About the authors and their works:
M.-H. Dumeste, "Le conte philosophique voltairien", Hatier, 2001
M.E. Diéval, "Profil d'une œuvre:l'Ingénu", Hatier, 2004.
J. Starobinski, "Le remède dans le mal.Critique et légitimation de l'artifice à l'âge des Lumières", Gallimard, 1989.
A. Ayer, "Voltaire", Il Mulino,1990.
R. Luporini, "Voltaire e le 'Lettres philosophiques': il concetto della storia e l'illuminismo", Einaudi, 1978.
"Voltaire en son temps", sous la dir. de R. Pomeau, Fayard, 1995.
J. Van den Heuvel, "Voltaire dans ses contes: de Micromégas à l'Ingénu", Slatkine, 1998.
P. Alatri, "Introduzione a Voltaire", Laterza, 1989.
"Dictionnaire général de Voltaire", sous la dir. de R. Trousson et J. Vercruysse, Champion, 2003.
R. Trousson, "Visages de Voltaire", Champion, 2001.
E. Caramaschi, "Voltaire, Mme de Staël, Balzac", Liviana, 1977.
R. Mortier, "Diderot en Allemagne", PUF, 1954.
H. Dieckmann, "Il realismo di Diderot", Laterza, 1977.
R. Kempf, "Diderot et le roman", Seuil 1964.
J. Proust, "Lectures de Diderot", Colin 1974.
E.R. Curtius, "Balzac", Il saggiatore, 1969.
F. Fiorentino, "Introduzione a Balzac", Laterza, 1989.
P. Barbéris, "Balzac: une mythologie réaliste", Larousse 1971.
J.-H. Donnard, Balzac: les réalités économiques et sociales dans la 'Comédie Humaine', Colin, 1961.
V. Brombert, "Stendhal: romanzo e temi della libertà", Il Mulino, 1994.
V. Del Litto, "Stendhal vivente", Mursia, 1974.
M. Colesanti, "Stendhal, le regole del gioco", Garzanti, 1983.
M. Anjubault Simons, "Sémiotisme de Stendhal", Droz, 1980.
About novel:
M. Bachtin, "Estetica e romanzo", Einaudi
M. Bachtin, "L'autore e l'eroe", Einaudi
H. Coulet, "Le roman jusqu'à la Révolution", Colin
J. Rousset, "Narcisse romancier", José Corti
G. Mazzoni, "Teoria del romanzo", Il Mulino
G. Genette, "Figures III", Seuil
A. Marchese, "L'Officina del romanzo", Mondadori
About training trip and realism:
R. Girard, "Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque", Grasset
F. Moretti, "Il romanzo di formazione", Einaudi, 1999.
M. Bertini, "Autocoscienza e inganno. Saggi sul romanzo di formazione", Liguori, 1985.
A. Beretta, "Il romanzo francese di formazione", Laterza, 2009.
T. Todorov, "Critica della critica: un romanzo di apprendistato", Einaudi, 1986.
E. Auerbach, "Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale", Einaudi, 2000.
P. Bénichou, "L'Ecole du désenchantement", Gallimard 1992.
F. Orlando, "Illuminismo, barocco e retorica freudiana", Einaudi, 1987.
* The critical works are mostly available at the Biblioteca Umanistica of the University. Other texts can be bought at a very low price.
Learning Objectives
The main course purposes are: know the history of the european thinking through the analysis of one of its most representative themes and processes; know the forms of the short story and novel whose impact has been fundamental on the European and western thinking.
Prerequisites
Students will have sufficient cultural competencies for the comprehension of a literary work, and an appropriate language proficiency to read a complex text.
Teaching Methods
Frontal lesson with discussion
Type of Assessment
Final oral exam
The final oral exam is divided into three parts:
a) Knowledge of eighteenth century literary culture (authors, works, historical contexts, history of ideas)
b) Discussion around one of the two critical works as indicated in the bibliography
c) Discussion around the subjects which has been treated during the course.
For each part, we will be checking the following proficiencies:
a) Originality and critical autonomy
b) General and specific knowledge concerning the different subjects of the course
c) Maturity of expression and language property
Course program
The course will be articulated through a theme and a process that can be considered as the most characteristics of the modern european thinking: the (real or metaphoric) training trip of an individual hero. A particular form of writing, short or more extended, is associated to this subject: the training story or training novel. Well known in the german tradition as Bildungsroman thanks to Goethe's model ("Wilhelm Meister"), the training novel's origins are remote; from Homer's Odissey to Dante's Comedy. This form, existing in France since the classical period with a pedagogical intent (we can give the exemple of the "Aventures de Télémaque" by Fénelon, which aim was the education of the Dauphin of France), takes its modern form following the mode of orientalism at the beginning of the Seventieth century. In order to release this persective from the influence of the classical tradition, marked by paternalism and nationalism, Montesquieu ("Lettres persanes"), Voltaire ("Candide", "L'Ingénu", "Micromégas") and Diderot ("Jacques le Fataliste"; "Supplément au voyage de Bougainville") assume an ironical-critical perspective, which is not only directed to Otherness (other subjects or other cultures) but also to the subject/the author itself and his own tradition. To do so, they use a technique known as "estrangement" or "disorientation". After the "romantization" of the training trip represented by Goethe ("Italian Journey"; "Wilhelm Meister") and inspiring Germaine De Staël ("Corinne ou l'Italie"), France recovers its ironical-critical tradition. The disappointment following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic age is well interpreted by Stendhal, whose main works ("Le rouge et le noir"; "La chartreuse de Parme"), mark "the age of disenchantment" and the so-called "death of idyllwild" (Bachtin). Balzac's glance overcomes Stendhal's situational irony and move, thanks to Hoffmann's influence, towards a formal and metascriptural criticism ("Illusions perdues"). After Flaubert's and Maupassant's radical realism ("L'éducation sentimentale"; "Bel-Ami"), literature cross the threshold of narrative belief: we are now facing with Proust's or Thomas Mann's criticism in novel or with the authorship disappearance of the Nouveau Roman.
The course aims to analyse, through the literary experience, the different steps of this process, showing the way we move from classical moralism to contemporary nihilism.