University of Bordeaux

This course provides an overview of the fundamental works of British and American literature. It provides an opportunity to read and reread texts and analyze and argue both orally and in writing. The course includes reading and discussing two assigned works: William Shakespeare, TWELFTH NIGHT; and Vladimir Nabokov, PNIN.

This course studies the history of civilization in the United Kingdom. The first part of the course examines the development of British politics, society, and empire. It discusses the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 which paved the way for parliamentary monarchy; political life (parties, elections) and the political and social integration of Scotland into Great Britain as important elements in the construction of British identity; and commercial growth and imperial expansion, in particular slavery and abolitionism (the movement against the slave trade) at the end of the century. The second part of the course studies various movements, tendencies, and artistic modes to analyze the question of representation of the nation and the empire. Topics include satirical engravings, caricatures, landscape paintings, war paintings, architectural elements, clothing, and musical works. It explores how the vision that the British had of their nation and their empire, from the 18th century to the 20th century, evolved within what can be called a "display culture."

This course presents the aesthetic changes and new artistic currents experienced in French painting in the 19th century. It provides an introduction to and analysis of neo-classicism with the presentation of two artists: David and Ingres; romanticism seen through the works of Géricault and Delacroix; realism in France through the study of works by Courbet; the impressionists presented first by the influence of Manet, then by the analysis of works by Monet and Renoir; and post-impressionism through the presentation of four precursor painters of the 20th century painting movements: Cézanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.

The first half of the course analyzes Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN in relation to its context within the African American tradition as well as the many narrative strategies Ellison uses to write about such a subject, including but not limited to his use of oral wordplay in a written work and the methods through which a person can attempt to identify themselves. For the second half of the course, students examine LEAVES OF GRASS in the epic and lyric traditions, its major themes, its modernity of form and content, and the Whitman legacy in modern American poetry. Discussion groups emphasize oral expression, the technique of close reading and textual commentary, and essay-writing strategies.