French Sole Letter and Reading List (pdf) - New College

NEW COLLEGEDear Student,4 April, 2013I enclose the syllabus for Prelims in French and for the extra papers taken by thosedoing French Sole so that you can set about getting hold of the books and readingthem before you arrive in October.You would be well advised to read them before you come because, although we willbe working on them in some detail, it helps to be reasonably familiar with them inadvance. Also, you will be attending lectures on some of the texts before we getround to studying them in classes and tutorials in college. This applies to all the textsfor commentary listed under Paper I and to the Cinema and Thought options in theFrench Sole syllabus.Most of the texts are available in fairly cheap and reliable editions, and can beordered from The Modern Languages Department of Blackwells, the main universitybookshop (Broad Street, Oxford), or from Grant & Cutler Booksellers in London.Blackwells sometimes has second-hand copies, and it’s worth looking on-line eg.AbeBooks.co.uk where you might also find second-hand copies. French books canalso be ordered online from French suppliers such as chapitre.com or amazon.fr.As regards language work, we recommend that you have William Rowlinson, FrenchGrammar (OUP, 1994) and, ideally W. F. Whitmarsh & C. D. Jukes New AdvancedFrench Course (Longmans, 1971). We also strongly advise you to have the Collins-Robert French Dictionary or (failing that) the new Oxford-Hachette dictionary. Besure to get the full-size one, and not a ‘compact’, ‘concise’ or ‘pocket’ version. ThePetit Robert is the best French-French dictionary.I hope that you have a good summer and I look forward to seeing you in October.Yours sincerely,Prof Ann JeffersonFellow and Tutor in French

Modern Languages Preliminary: Literature in FrenchThe literary element of the Prelims course in French is made up of two papers, the first is anumber of ‘paired’ short texts for commentary, the second an introduction to the study ofprose fiction. Each paper has ‘set texts’ for close study; these are listed below, and it isessential to have read these before you arrive at College. In some cases, we havesuggested which editions we think most useful, and which are not; in others, buy, and read,whatever you can find.It is also a good idea to read more widely around these set books: find other texts by thesame authors, and novels, poems or plays written at the same times as those set, in Frenchor English (or your other language).I Paired short texts for commentaryPhilosophical proseMichel de Montaigne, ‘Des Coches,’ in Essais, Livre III (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1979).[NB: do not use the Folio edition, in which the spelling has been modernized]Isabelle de Graffigny, Lettres d’une péruvienne, ed. Mallinson (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation,2002).[NB: do not use the Côté-Femmes edition by Colette Piau-Gillot (Paris, 1990); itis incomplete]PoetryCharles Baudelaire, ‘Spleen et Idéal’, in Les Fleurs du Mal ed. Chesters (Bristol ClassicalPress, Duckworth, 1995) or the Gallimard (ed. Pichois) or Flammarion (ed. Dupont) editions.Aimé Césaire, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal. (Présence africaine, 1983).The bilingual edition, Return to my Native Land, with translations and notes by Rosello andPritchard, published by Bloodaxe, London 1993, is good, but should not be relied upon.DramaJean Racine, Phèdre, in Théâtre complet (Paris: Garnier, 1980).The Bristol Classical Press edition (London: Duckworth, 1996) has a detailed commentaryon each scene.Samuel Beckett, En attendant Godot (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1952).II Prose FictionLa Chastelaine de Vergy, in Nouvelles courtoises, ed. S. Méjean-Thiolier and M-F. Notz-Grob,(Paris: Livre de Poche, 1997). [ISBN 2-253-066613]Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, ed. Pomeau (Paris: Garnier- Flammarion,1996).

Honoré de Balzac, La Peau de chagrin, ed. N. Satiat (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1996); ored. S. de Sacy (Paris: Gallimard-Folio, 1974 & reprints)Marcel Proust, Combray, ed. L. Hodson (Bristol Classical Press, Duckworth, 1996)or in Du côté de chez Swann (Folio classique), the first volume of A la recherche du tempsperdu.READING LIST FOR FURTHER PAPERS IN FRENCH TAKEN BY THOSEDOING FRENCH SOLEPaper XI: Introduction to French FilmAs part of your Prelim French sole course next year you will be taking a class in the historyof French film. The course focuses on four classic films (see below) but also includesreference a number of other films in order to give you an idea of how film developed inFrance from the 1930s to the 1970s.The four films to be studied in depth are: Jean Vigo: L’Atalante (1934) Jacques Becker: Casque d’Or (1952) Jean-Luc Godard: A bout de souffle (1960) Bertrand Blier: Les valseuses (1974)In order to prepare for this class over the summer the following books are recommended. Thefirst is a very clear general introduction to French cinema:Alan Williams: Republic of Images: History of French Filmmaking (Harvard, 1992)The following book gives you a detailed introduction to French cinema as an industry:Michael Temple and Michael Witt ed.: The French Cinema Book (British Film Institute, 2004)The following book is a very useful general introduction to film explaining all the technicalterms that one uses to analyse a film:David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson: Film Art: An Introduction (McGraw-Hill, 2004)The teaching for this paper takes place in Michaelmas Term.

Paper XII: Introduction to French Literary TheoryThis paper will introduce you to four twentieth-century literary critics. In your essay writingyou will be able to engage with their ideas about literature and with their particular way ofexpressing them. You will be encouraged to apply these ideas to your own reading of texts.The prescribed authors are :Valéry, ‘Questions de poésie’ and ‘Poésie et pensée abstraite’, in Théorie poétique etesthétique, part of Variété : Œuvres, vol. I (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade) (Gallimard)[texts available on the Faculty’s Weblearn page – accessible once you are here]Sartre, ‘Qu’est-ce qu’écrire?’ ‘Pourquoi écrire?’ in Qu’est-ce que la littérature? (Folio)Barthes, Critique et vérité (Seuil)Todorov, ‘La notion de littérature’, ‘L’origine des genres’, ‘Les deux principes durécit’, ‘Introduction au vraisemblable’ in La Notion de littérature et autres essais(recommended edition : Seuil)The teaching for this paper takes place in Hilary Term weeks 5-8 and Trinity Term weeks 1-4 in a combination of lectures and seminars.Paper XIII: Key Texts in French ThoughtThis paper will introduce you to four thinkers from the seventeenth to the twentiethcenturies. In both essay and commentary writing you will be able to engage with their ideasand with their particular way of expressing them.The prescribed texts are:Descartes, Discours de la méthode (Garnier-Flammarion)Rousseau, Discours sur l’inégalité (Folio)Bergson, Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (PUF)Beauvoir, Le Deuxième Sexe (Folio), I, ‘Introduction’, pp.9-32 ; ‘Mythes’, pp.237-408 ; II, ‘La femme mariée’. pp.221-329 ; ‘La mère’, pp.330-391.The teaching for this paper takes place in Michaelmas Term weeks 5-8 and Hilary Termweeks 1-4 in a combination of lectures and seminars.You should read the texts in advance.