READING LIST IN FRENCH LITERATURE AND PEDAGOGY 
(MAFLP)

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
103 Jastak-Burgess Hall - University of Delaware
Newark,  DE 19716
(302) 831-6882

 

The MA in Foreign Languages and Pedagogy requires students to take both written and oral comprehensive exams in literature and foreign language pedagogy. 

The literature examination for the Master's degree in Foreign Languages and Pedagogy is offered in November/December and April/May of each academic year. It emphasizes not only the content (plot, setting, characters, etc.) of each work but also its implicit values and its aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings.  An understanding of the contribution of each work to its own period is essential.  Students should have a grasp both of the major French literary movements and of the cultural and historical context in which they arose.  Both the written and oral portions of the exam are conducted entirely in French.

All students will read works from the lists for six of the seven periods/areas. Please note that students must have taken at least one course in the period/area not chosen for the exam. The written exam will consist of six identifications covering the six periods/areas selected, and an explication de texte. Two hours and forty minutes will be allotted for the written exam, and the time limit will be strictly observed.

The oral examination will focus on the Reading Lists for the six periods/areas chosen, the student's course work, and any questions arising from the written examination.

Because these reading lists require a number of choices between work A or B, students must inform their advisers of their selections at least one month prior to the date scheduled for the written exam. Any requests for substitutions of works on the Reading Lists must also be submitted by this deadline.
 

I. MEDIEVAL PERIOD

Works in Old French to be read in modern French translation.

l. La Chanson de Roland

2. Béroul, Le Roman de Tristan

3. Marie de France, Les Lais (extracts):

"Prologue", "Guigemar", "Lanval", "Yonec", "Le Laüstic" and "Le Chaitivel"

4. Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, le chevalier à la charrette or Perceval ou le Conte du Graal

5. Aucassin et Nicolette

6. La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin

7. François Villon, Le Testament (extracts):

"Ballade des dames du temps jadis"
"Ballade des seigneurs du temps jadis"
"Les regrets de la belle Heaumière"
Double ballade "Pour ce, aimez tant que voudrez"
"Ballade pour prier Notre Dame"
"Les Contredits de Franc Gontier"
"Ballade de la Grosse Margot"
"Epitaphe" ("Cy gist et dort...")
"Autre ballade" ("Icy se clost le testament")
In addition: "L'Epitaphe Villon" also called "Ballade des pendus"

N.B. As with other centuries, students should be familiar with the social and cultural history of the Middle Ages.
 

II. RENAISSANCE

Poetry

1. Ronsard - the following poems, which can be found in the bulk pack for FREN 624 (on reserve in Morris Library):

Les Amours (1552/53) - nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15
La Continuation des Amours (1555/56) - nos. 17, 19, 20
Sur la Mort de Marie (1578) - nos. 24 and 25
Sonnets pour Hélène (1578/84) - nos. 27, 28, 31, 32, 35, 37

2. Labé, Sonnets

3. Du Bellay, Les Antiquités de Rome and Les Regrets *
 

Prose Fiction

 

4. Rabelais, Gargantua (or Pantagruel)

5. Marguerite de Navarre, L'Heptaméron the "Prologue" and the "Première Journée"

Non-Fiction

 

6. Montaigne, Essais

I       26,  De l'institution des enfants
I       28,  De l'amitié
I       31,  Des cannibales
III      2,  Du repentir
III      9,  De la vanité
III    13,  De l'expérience

* Detailed knowledge is required only of those poems from these collections that appear in French Poetry of the Renaissance, ed. Bernard Weinberg (New York: Harper, 1954) Morris Library PQ 1173. W43 (on reserve).
 

III. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

1. Descartes, Discours de la méthode (I, II, III, IV) or Pascal, Pensées (édition à consulter: 
    Nouveaux Classiques Larousse)

2. Corneille, Le Cid and Horace or L'Illusion comique or Cinna

3. Molière, Le Misanthrope and Tartuffe

4. Racine, Andromaqueand Phèdre

5. La Fontaine, Fables:

"La Cigale et la Fourmi"
"Le Corbeau et le Renard"
"La Grenouille qui se veut faire plus grosse que le boeuf"
"Le Rat de ville et le rat des champs"
"Le Loup et l'Agneau"
"Le Chêne et le Roseau"
"La Laitière et le Pot au lait"
"La Poule aux oeufs d'or"
"L'Amour et la Folie"
"La Jeune Veuve"

6. Mme de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves

7. La Rochefoucauld, Maximes

IV. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

 

1. Marivaux, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard or Prévost, Manon Lescaut

2. Montesquieu, Lettres persanes or Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne

3. Voltaire, Zadig andCandide

4. Diderot, Le Neveu de Rameauor Jacques le Fataliste

5. Rousseau, Les Confessions or La Nouvelle Héloïseor les deux  Discours

6. Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

7. Chénier, "La Jeune Tarentine" and "La Jeune Captive"


V. NINETEENTH CENTURY

Prose Fiction (Novels and stories):

1. Chateaubriand, Atala or René

2. Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir or La Chartreuse de Parme or  another novel*

3. Sand, La Mare au diable or Claire de Duras Ourika

4. Balzac, Le Père Goriot or Eugénie Grandet or another novel*

5. Flaubert, Madame Bovary or L'Education sentimentale

6. Zola, Germinal, or L'Assommoir or another novel*

*Permission of nineteenth-century specialist required.

Play/Essay:

1. Hugo, Hernani/Préface de Cromwell

Poetry:

1. Lamartine, "Le Lac"

2. Hugo, "Tristesse d'Olympio"

3. Musset, "La Nuit de mai"

4. Vigny, "La mort du loup"

5. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, "Les Roses de Saadi"

6. Baudelaire:

"Spleen" ("Quand le ciel bas et lourd...") 
"Correspondances"
"Hymne à la beauté"
"Invitation au voyage"

7. Verlaine, "Chanson d'automne"

8. Rimbaud, "Le Bateau ivre"

9. Mallarmé, "Brise marine"
 

VI. TWENTIETH CENTURY

Fiction:

1. Proust, Combray or Colette La Vagabonde

2. Gide, Les Caves du Vatican or Yourcenar Le Coup de Grâce

3. Sartre, La Nausée or Beauvoir L'Invitée or Camus L'Exil et le royaume 

4. Duras or Perec or Robbe-Grillet or Sarraute: One novel with prior approval.

5. Ernaux or Le Clézio or Quignard or Sallenave or Tournier: One novel with prior approval.


Plays: 

1. Anouilh, Antigone or Bernanos, Dialogues des Carmélites or Claudel, L'Annonce faite à Marie or Giraudoux, La Guerre de
Troie n'aura pas lieu

2. Beckett, En attendant Godot or Camus Caligula or Ionesco Les Chaises


Poems:

1. Valéry, "L'Amateur de poèmes", "Palme", "Ébauche d'un serpent", "Les Pas"

2. Sélection de poèmes surréalistes (with prior approval) or Apollinaire, La Chanson du Mal Aimé

3. Bonnefoy, "Théâtre" in Du mouvement et de l'immobilité de Douve

VII.  READING LIST FOR FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE

 

 

PROSE/FICTION    

 

      1-Bâ, Mariama.  Une si longue lettre

2-Camara, Laye.  L’Enfant noir

3-Chedid, Andrée.  L’Enfant multiple

4-Condé, Maryse.  Moi Tituba… Sorcière

5-Confiant, Raphaël.  Ravines du devant-jour.

 

POETRY   ONE (1) of the following: 

 

1-Césaire, Aimé.  Le Cahier d’un retour au pays natal.

 

2-Senghor, Léopold Sédar.  « Femme noire » 

                                               « Masque nègre » 

                                               « Neige sur Paris » 

                                               «Poème liminaire » 

                                               « Congo » 

                                               « Joal » 

 

3-Damas, Léon-Gontran.     « Ils sont venus ce soir» 

                                               « Névralgie » 

                                               « Trêve » 

                                               « Hoquet » 

                                               « Solde » 

                                               « Limbé » 

  

PLAYS   TWO (2) of the following: 

 

1- Dadié, Bernard.  Béatrice du Congo.

2- Césaire, Aimé.  La Tragédie du Roi Christophe.

                               -Une Saison au Congo.

3- Tchicaya, U Tam’Si.  Le Destin glorieux du maréchal Nnikon Nniku, prince qu’on sort.

4- Oyono-Mbia, Guillaume.  Trois Prétendants, un mari


Pedagogy Reading List and Study Topics for the MAFLP Exam

 Last Updated on 12/11/09