Sociopoetics of Norms and Interaction – Politeness and Impoliteness in Literature 3304-1DZ3O-SL-037
The course is interdisciplinary in nature and combines historical, anthropological, linguistic, and literary approaches. The aim of the seminar is to reflect on how literature represents, interprets, and transforms social norms—primarily those related to politeness, honor, distance, irony, and symbolic aggression—and how it uses politeness conventions as tools for building characters, relationships, and genres. Participants will learn about speech act theory, the concept of “linguistic politeness,” and the tradition of research on savoir-vivre and etiquette. The conceptual tools and terminology developed by cultural historians, linguistic pragmatists, and literary theorists will be used to analyze specific literary texts from different eras.
The seminar will discuss, among other things, the following issues:
Cicero and the rhetoric of political politeness:
De officiis as a source of classical ideals of decorum and urbanitas.
Politeness as a tool for harmonizing the community and effective persuasion.
Medieval Christian politeness:
Courtesy, humility, hierarchical order – monastic rules and chivalric savoir-vivre.
Disticha Catonis, ascetic and moral treatises as normative sources.
Galateo and humanistic social etiquette:
Giovanni Della Casa and the birth of the modern treatise on manners.
Conversation model, body control, cultural distinction – literature as a mirror of lifestyle.
Castiglione and court poetics:
Il Cortegiano as a treatise on theatricality and the game of appearances – sprezzatura and the ambiguity of the mask.
Courtesy as an element of literary identity construction.
The 17th century – honnêteté, gallantry, and raillerie:
The dispute over sincerity and artificiality in salon literature.
Molière, Scudéry, La Bruyère – satire as an analysis of codes of politeness.
Politeness as an element of protocol and political ceremony:
Court etiquette as a discourse of power – from Louis XIV to diplomatic protocol.
Revolutionary and republican critiques of etiquette (1793: the project of compulsory use of the familiar form of address).
Diplomacy, ritual, and politeness as a form of institutional legitimization.
The 19th century – the moralization of politeness and bourgeois models of behavior:
Treatises on savoir-vivre, salon literature, comedy of manners.
Class distance and politeness as a tool of symbolic domination.
The 20th and 21st centuries – a crisis of norms or a return to politeness?
The disintegration of etiquette and new forms of symbolic aggression in contemporary literature.
Politeness as a social technology in the era of democratization and pluralism.
Politeness from a linguistic perspective:
Linguistic pragmatics: speech act theory, politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson, Kerbrat-Orecchioni).
Politeness, irony, distance, facework – analysis of literary dialogues.
Type of course
B.Sc. seminars
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
The student will achieve the following learning outcomes (within the scope of this bachelor's seminar):
• K_W01 - has basic knowledge of the place and significance of the humanities, in particular philology, in the system of sciences, as well as their subject-specific and methodological characteristics
• K_W02 - knows the basic terminology of the humanities, in particular philology
• K_W03 - knows the basic concepts and corresponding terms used to describe language and literature
• K_W04 - has systematic knowledge of the basic processes occurring in the areas of language and literature
• K_W12 - has knowledge of the culture of France and French-speaking countries in the thematic scope of the seminar
• K_W14 - knows and understands basic concepts and principles in the field of intellectual property protection and copyright law
• K_U01 - is able to use various sources and methods, both traditional and modern, to search for, analyze, evaluate, select, and use the information necessary to participate in classes;
• K_U02 - has basic research skills, including the analysis of research problems, the formulation of hypotheses, the selection of research methods, and the development and presentation of results to the extent necessary to participate in class discussions and prepare their own work on the subject of the seminar
• K_U03 - is able to independently acquire knowledge and develop research skills, following the guidance of a teacher/supervisor
• K_U04 - is able to use basic theoretical approaches, research paradigms, and concepts relevant to literary studies
• K_U05 - is able to recognize different types of cultural products (language, literature, art) and conduct their critical analysis and interpretation using typical methods
• K_U06 - has the ability to argue substantively using the views of other authors and to formulate conclusions
• K_U07 - is able to communicate with specialists in the field of Romance philology in Polish and French using various communication channels and techniques
• K_U08 - is able to design a written work, in French and Polish, presenting specific issues, using various sources and basic theoretical approaches
• K_U09 - has the ability to prepare oral presentations in French and Polish, presenting specific issues, using various sources and basic theoretical approaches
• K_U10 - has active and passive language competence in French at level C1 according to the European system for describing language education in speaking and writing
Assessment criteria
Attendance:
- The first requirement, which determines all others, is regular attendance at classes. Three absences per semester are allowed (regardless of whether they are excused or not). Anyone who exceeds the permissible number of absences is required to contact the instructor to determine how to proceed.
Passing the semester 1
A person may receive a pass if they:
- actively participate in classes
- are prepared for classes and know the content of the assigned readings
- submit written work on time and present the results of their work to the group
- consult with the instructor at least three times per semester on the progress of their work on the topic of their bachelor's thesis
- receives at least 60% on tests, written assignments, projects, and presentations (in each category separately)
Bibliography
Primary Bibliography
History of civility and civilization of customs:
Norbert Elias, O procesie cywilizacji, t. I–II (przekł. pol. lub fr. La civilisation des mœurs / La société de cour).
Emmanuel Bury, Littérature et politesse. L’invention de l’honnête homme (1580–1750), PUF, 1996.
Jorge Arditi, A Genealogy of Manners. Transformations of Social Relations in France and England from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Century, University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Benet Davetian, Civility: A Cultural History, University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Frédéric Rouvillois, Histoire de la politesse de 1789 à nos jours, Flammarion, 2011.
On politeness:
Giovanni Della Casa, Galateo, czyli o manierach, przekł. i wstęp: Z. Żakiewicz (lub oryg. Galateo, overo de’ costumi, 1558).
Baldassare Castiglione, Książę (lub Il Cortegiano, 1528).
Antoine de Courtin, Nouveau traité de la civilité qui se pratique en France parmi les honnêtes gens (1671, ed. 1712).
Frank Greiner (red.), La politesse amoureuse de Marsile Ficin à Madeleine de Scudéry, Franco-Italica, 1999
Nathalie Grande, Le rire galant. Usages du comique dans les fictions narratives de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, Champion, 2018.
Dominique Bertrand, Dire le rire à l’âge classique. Représenter pour mieux contrôler, Université de Provence, 1995.
Christophe Losfeld, Politesse, morale et construction sociale. Pour une histoire des traités de comportements (1670–1788), Champion, 2011.
Françoise Poulet, Éric Suire, Myriam Tsimbidy (red.), Civilités et incivilités urbaines. Urbanité, rituels et cérémonies dans la ville du XVIIe siècle, Brepols, 2024.
(Im)politeness and pragmatics
Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Les interactions verbales, t. II, Armand Colin, 2005.
Penelope Brown & Stephen Levinson, Politeness. Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press, 1987.
On the history of manners
Roger Chartier (red.), Histoire de la vie privée, t. 3: De la Renaissance aux Lumières, Seuil, 1986 (artykuł Jacquesa Revela: « Usages de la civilité »).
Marvin B. Becker, Civility and Society in Western Europe, 1300–1600, Indiana University Press, 1988.
Alain Montandon (red.), Pour une histoire des traités de savoir-vivre en Europe, Clermont-Ferrand, 1994.
Alain Montandon (red.), Savoir-vivre I, Césura Lyon Édition, 1990.
Marcel Bax, Daniel Z. Kádár (red.), Understanding Historical (Im)politeness, John Benjamins, 2012.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: