Readings/Films:

Clément Marot, selections from L’Adolescence clémentine (1532) and other works; Joachim du Bellay, Les Regrets (1558), Le Poète courtisan (1559) and excerpts of La Défense et illustration de la langue française (1564); Pierre de Ronsard, selections from Les Amours (1552-1584) and Discours (1562-1563), Agrippa d’Aubigné, selections from Les Tragiques (1616 ; books 1, 2 and 5), Francois de Malherbe, selections from his Poésies (1630).

Course Description:

This class explores wide selections of the works of five major 16th century French poets (Clément Marot, Joachim du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Agrippa d’Aubigné and François de Malherbe), examining both how they relate to power in their writings and in what ways their positions as court poets allowed them to work towards the renewal of French poetry more generally. Their poetry is read in modernized editions, with a focus on careful close-reading and contextualization, rather than on reading exhaustively.

Throughout the second half of the 16th century, the violence generated by the wars of religion consistently weakened the authority of the French kings, sometimes making it difficult for them to sustain around them a court. Yet the last Valois kings just as much as the first Bourbon monarch, Henri IV of France, consistently maintained, in their immediate entourage, court poets, whose poetry was for them a source of intellectual prestige, as well as a way to assert the unity and power of the French monarchy during a time of turmoil. These poets were often eager to serve their powerful patrons, but they were also desirous to develop new poetic language — and enthusiastic about experimenting creatively with poetic forms. Some of their efforts can seem to parallel, in the realm of language and poetry, the monarchy’s effort to stabilize France’s political and religious turmoil. But much of their poetry consisted in a systematic exploration of the power of their own voices, thereby leading to the development of new tools and tonalities for the crafting of lyrical poetry.

This class will please all lovers of poetry. But it will also interest students desirous to develop a contextualized understanding of French literary history. No prior knowledge of early modern French literature is necessary.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

No prior knowledge of early modern French literature is necessary. This course satisfies one “Literature/Genre” or one “Elective” course requirement in the French major; satisfies one Historical Period requirement in French major.  Satisfies 1 course requirement in French minor.