L'art de la nouvelle

In this course we shall study a range of examples of the nouvelle or short story, from 19th century realist and fantastic literature (Maupassant, Flaubert, Colette) to modern French and Francophone texts (Sartre, Camus, Djebar, Redonnet, Quiriny). Emphasis will be on formal analysis, major genres/movements (realism, the fantastic, existentialism, anti-/post-colonial critique, “post-modernism”) and the short story’s capacity to offer forms of social critique. We will also read some secondary theoretical materials (Freud, Sartre, Barthes, Todorov, Piglia, Samoyault). Taught in French.