FRENCH SOLE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION (2006-7) PAPER XII : INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH LITERARY THEORY PRESCRIBED TEXTS Paul Valry,

, 'Questions de posie' and 'Posie en pense abstraite', in Thorie potique et esthtique, part of Varit: Oeuvres, Vol. I (Bibliothque de la Pliade, Gallimard, 1957), pp. 1280-1293, 1314-1339. Photocopies should have been sent to you by your college tutor (if they weren't, please contact your college tutor). J-P. Sartre, Qu'est-ce que la littrature? Sections I-III ('Qu'est-ce qu'crire?', 'Pourquoi crire?', 'Pour qui crit-on?'.) R. Barthes, Critique et vrit G. Genette, Figures III, Sections to be studied: 'Critique et potique', 'Potique et histoire', 'La rhtorique restreinte', 'Mtonymie chez Proust'.
CRITICAL READING

On Valry On Sartre Rhiannon Goldthorpe, Sartre : Literature and Theory (1984), Ch. 6 Christina Howells, Sartre and the Necessity of Freedom (1984), Ch. 6 Dominick LaCapra, A Preface to Sartre (1978), Ch. 2 The Cambridge Companion to Sartre, ed. Christina Howells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), esp. pp. 140-49 Jean-Franois Fourny and Charles D. Minahen eds, Situating Sartre in Twentieth-Century Thought and Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997) On Barthes On Genette LECTURES The lecturers for this paper are: McGuinness (Valry), Jefferson (Sartre), Hiddleston (Barthes), Lunn-Rockliffe (Genette). TEACHING ARRANGEMENTS The paper will be taught in weeks 5-8 of HT and weeks 1-4 of TT. Each undergraduate will receive two and a half hours of instruction per text (1 hour's lecture, 1.5 hour's seminar). All undergraduates must be present for the lectures and seminars. Undergraduates should attend seminars according to the group to which they have been allocated. Detailed timetable as follows (venues for the lectures are given on the Lecture List; venues for your seminar will be specified by your seminar tutor): HT week 5 Tuesday 11 Valry lecture 1

HT week 6 HT week 7 HT week 8 TT week 1 TT week 2 TT week 3 TT week 4

Thursday 11 Tuesday 11 Thursday 11 Tuesday 11 Thursday 11 Tuesday 11 Thursday 11

Valry seminar Sartre lecture Sartre seminar Barthes lecture Barthes seminar Genette lecture Genette seminar

Please take along a copy of the relevant text to each lecture / seminar. WRITTEN WORK Each undergraduate will be expected to submit a total of three pieces of written work on three of the texts, and to give one presentation on the fourth text. At least one of the pieces of work must be a commentary and at least one must be an essay. Detailed instructions will be provided by your seminar tutor. Your seminar tutor will report to your college tutor on the quality of your work. EXAMINATION The examination is a three-hour written paper taken around the end of Trinity Term and will include 1 commentary passage from each text and 1 essay question on each text. Candidates will be required to write 1 commentary and 2 essays, showing a knowledge of 3 of the texts.

Sartre Essay Questions Discuss Sartres view of the relationship between art and engagement in Quest-ce que la littrature? Why and in what way does Sartre look to identify literature with prose?