French Literature and the Sacred:
From the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century

I. We will look at the tradition of sacred literature, crucial to our understanding the history of Western culture yet often neglected in contemporary literary studies. Scrutiny of Christian-oriented books and the function of the writer in this context; the meeting of and tension between the sacred and the secular, including anti-Christian satire; in the twentieth century, in response to modernity, a more varied, problematic response with Muslim and Jewish voices, texts in French from outside the Hexagon, and texts in the great regional languages. Most importantly, we will read these works as literature, from a number of modern critical perspectives, including Freudian, Jungian, Marxist, reader response, gender-related, and intertextual.

II. One fifteen page paper.
Active seminar discussion.

III. Chanson de Roland
Poésie baroque
Voltaire, La Pucelle (selections)
Georges Bernanos, Sous le soleil de Satan
François Mauriac, Le Noeud de Vipères
Cheikh Hamidou Kane, L'Aventure ambiguë
Élie Wiesel, La Nuit

IV. Aug. 27 Introduction

29 Chanson de Roland

Sept. 3 Secular Holiday

5 Chanson de Roland

10, 12 Chanson de Roland

17, 19 Chanson de Roland

24, 26 Poésie baroque

Oct. 1 Poésie baroque

3, 8 Reading Period

10 Poésie baroque

15, 17 Poésie baroque

22, 24 Voltaire, La Pucelle

29, 31 Bernanos, Sous le soleil de Satan

Nov. 5, 7 Bernanos, Sous le soleil de Satan

12 Secular Holiday

14 Mauriac, Le Noeud de Vipères

19, 21 Mauriac, Le Noeud de Vipères

26, 28 Kane, L'Aventure ambiguë

Dec. 3, 5 Wiesel, La Nuit

V. Office: 236 Dauer Hall
Office Hours: Mon. & Wed. Per. 8
Office Phone: 392-2016, ext. 238
Home Phone: 373-3739
E-mail: wcalin@rll.ufl.edu