Undergraduate Seminar: Discovering and Depicting the World: The Unknown New World and the Exotic Orient in French Travel Literature (16th–17th Centuries). ... 3304-1DZ3O-SL-043

The BA seminar covers two main areas of research: first, issues related to French travel literature from the Age of Great Geographical Discoveries to the seventeenth century; second, selected problems in the history of French Renaissance literature, with particular emphasis on transformations in the humanist worldview, the development of Renaissance poetry and prose, and the reception of the classical tradition.

The first semester of the BA seminar is devoted to expanding and deepening students’ knowledge of the history of sixteenth-century French literature, acquired during lectures and classes in the first two years of undergraduate studies. Students will also become familiar with the specific features of travel literature. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the characteristic socio-cultural issues of the period.

1/ After becoming acquainted with the historical and cultural context of expeditions during the Age of Great Geographical Discoveries, students will analyze sixteenth- and seventeenth-century travel accounts, including journeys to the Americas (Brazil, Canada), Egypt, the Holy Land, Turkey, and Sumatra. Literature and culture of the Renaissance:
The seminar focuses on the analysis of various types of accounts from the expeditions of French travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The corpus of texts includes journeys to both the Americas and the Levant. Differences in the descriptions of lands and phenomena known from ancient texts (Herodotus, Pliny) and reinterpreted by contemporary authors will be examined. Against this background, the characteristic features of accounts from the New World will be presented, including spaces and objects that had never previously been described. A substantial part of the course will be devoted to the issue of Otherness, its conceptualisation, as well as examples of techniques used to represent other societies and their customs.

2/ Students may undertake research topics concerning not only literature of the period but also broader cultural issues (court life, religious conflicts, standards of beauty, print culture).

Proposed research areas:

The Grands Rhétoriqueurs and linguistic play; social themes addressed by the Rhétoriqueurs,
Clément Marot: spiritual dimensions of his poetry,
François Rabelais and the mysteries of his narrative style,
Marguerite de Navarre – a follower of Boccaccio?,
Women’s poetry: Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, Pernette du Guillet,
Hélisenne de Crenne and an extraordinary novel of passion,
Maurice Scève and the theme of the homo faber (Microcosme),
Joachim Du Bellay and the classical tradition,
Montaigne’s Essais in the light of recent research,
Late sixteenth-century poetry and Baroque aesthetics.

During the winter semester, seminar participants will select topics for their BA theses and present a draft outline of their thesis and presentation.

In the summer semester, students will proceed with the implementation of their plan: they will prepare a thesis outline and a BA-level presentation.

A detailed syllabus for the seminar will be presented during the first meeting.