French Literature Periods PDF

# Literary Movements ## Middle Ages (11th century - end of the 15th century) - **Omnipresence of the Christian faith** - **New social class:** Bourgeoisie - **Nobility:** Chansons de geste, Song of Roland, Breton Romances - **Bourgeoisie:** Humorous tales, Reynard the Fox - **Feudal world (d...

# Literary Movements ## Middle Ages (11th century - end of the 15th century) - **Omnipresence of the Christian faith** - **New social class:** Bourgeoisie - **Nobility:** Chansons de geste, Song of Roland, Breton Romances - **Bourgeoisie:** Humorous tales, Reynard the Fox - **Feudal world (division of the territory)** - **Written to be sung/recited** - **Learned literature:** Romance of the Rose ## The Renaissance (16th century) - **Literary shift?** - **Political & legal change** - **End of the Middle Ages** - **New artists:** Leonardo da Vinci & Michelangelo - **New ideas introduced** - **Return to Antiquity (Inspired by Greek mythology and Latin culture)** - **Neoplatonism gains popularity, philosophical movement** - **Two schools of thought:** - The Lyon School - The Pléiade (group of seven writers) - **Maurice Scève** - **Louise Labé** (Love, flight of time) - **Influence of Greek mythology & Latin** - **Du Bellay & Ronsard** ## Classicism (17th century) - **Also known as:** - Classical century - The golden age of literature - **Reign of Louis XIV:** - **Sole ruler for a long time** - **Built the Palace of Versailles** - **Absolute monarchy/divine right** - **Louis had good literary taste. Good writers were favored by Louis (pensions...)** - **Molière** - **Classicism is an aesthetic! (Standardization of the French language)** - Good taste, Refinement, Rigor, appreciation of beauty and truth - **Rule of Decorum: Remain poised in vocabulary** ## 17th Century = Theatre Century - **Tragedy: Everyone dies.** - **It's known from the start that things will go wrong.** - **No hope** ## Age of Enlightenment (18th Century) - **Also known as:** Philosophical Spirit - **Century of Philosophers** - **Begins in 1715 after the death of Louis XIV (14)** - **Louis XV's reign begins.** - **1789: French Revolution** - **July 14th, 1789: The storming of the Bastille** - **Emphasis on new ideas** - **The intention is to change things** - **Committed writer** - **Importance of traveling abroad** - **Push for logic and intelligence over superstition** - **Philosophical targets:** - Superstition, religious fanaticism, injustice (privilege, torture, slavery) - **Types of writing:** Dictionaries, pamphlets, philosophical tales, epistolary tales - **Important book:** *Encyclopédie* - **Combines work of many philosophers** - **Combines all human knowledge** - **Voltaire = face of the 18th century** ## Romanticism (Mid-19th Century) - **Also known as:** Romantic current - **Begins around 1815** - **The Mal du siècle (the disease of the century)** - **The Napoleonic Empire Begins.** - **Time of Glory for France** - **Nature of Romanticism:** - **Imagination/sensibility instead of reason.** - **Exaltation of self** - **It manifests with a flowering of personal lyricism.** - **Extensive communication with the subconscious (coincides with the narrator's inner world)** - **Nature = mirror of emotions** - **Autumn = because of the transition toward death** - **Romantic hero to the rescue of the weak.** - **Three unities & Decorum = ignored** - **Keywords:** Loneliness, despair, morbid attraction, state of mind, existential angst, melancholy, suicide - **Important writers:** - **Victor Hugo** - *Notre Dame de Paris* - *Les Misérables* - **Chateaubriand** - *Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb* (Mont Boissier, July 1817) ## Sonnet - **Fixed poetic form** - **Always has the same number of verses** - **14 verses (lines)** - **4 stanzas (4 sections)** - **2 quatrains (4 lines)** - **2 tercets (3 lines)** - **First quatrain** - **Second quatrain** - **First tercet** - **Second tercet** - **Rhyme scheme:** - **Embracing rhyme** - **Couplet rhyme** - **Cross rhyme** - **End of the first idea, beginning of a new one** - **Unexpected end/new reality** - **Invitation to reread the poem** - **Verses of 12 syllables = dodecasyllable or Alexandrine** - **Verses of 10 syllables = decasyllable** - **Verses of 6 syllables = sizain** - **Poor rhyme: 1 sound** - **Insufficient rhyme: 2 sounds** - **Rich rhyme: more than 2 sounds** - **3 sounds...**