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Genre Bending: Experimenting with Form & Gender in Modern French Literature/

« Mauvais genre » : Expérimentations formelles et genrées dans la littérature française moderne

Advanced undergraduate course. Taught in French.

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Photograph published in Sébastien Lifshitz's Mauvais genre: Les travestis à travers un siècle de photographie amateur, 2016.

Mauvais Genre Course Outline

- Course Outline and Requirements -

Schedule:

This class will meet twice a week, for sessions of 80 minutes each OR three times a week for 50 minutes.

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Course Description:
Through a focus on literature, this course looks at the way in which gender is portrayed and questioned in modern French literature from the 19th and 20th centuries. Although focused on primary texts, this course also provides a survey of major feminist essays and articles (both French and American) and studies cultural theory, film, performance and visual arts. Through these varied media, we will study how literary experimentations with style and genre disrupt gender norms and boundaries. What does it mean to write/read about women? Does literature have a gender? Looking at both canonical and marginal novels that radically disrupt gender relations and identities, we will further be attentive to the social, moral, aesthetic and personal implications of “genre bending”.

Required Material:
All material will be made available online by the instructor. Students are responsible for purchasing the following books:

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• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Folio Classique, 2001. [1856]

• Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus, Modern Language Association of America, 2004. [1884]

• Colette, La Chatte, Le Livre de Poche, 2004. [1933]

• Anne F. Garréta, Sphinx, Grasset, 1986.

Learning Outcomes:

• Language proficiency: Train students to speak and write critically in French.
• Key Terms: Develop a critical lexicon and study theoretical concepts relevant to gender and sexuality studies..
• Critical analysis: Identify and evaluate claims, synthesize ideas, and develop well-substantiated, coherent, and concise arguments.
• Research Skills: Locate primary and secondary resources and learn to build a research project. Develop well-focused projects.
• Writing skills: Train students to humanities writing style and communication.

Assignments Sequence:

  • Participation (15% of the final grade): Students should contribute actively to the discussions. Students are encouraged to engage directly with their classmates by adding to their remarks, asking questions, or making summary remarks. All discussions will take place in French.

  • Online Notebook (15% of the final grade): Students will compose 10 weekly responses over the course of the semester (250- 350 words), which provide brief summaries of all assigned readings, identify key themes, and pose one critical question. Responses must be posted on the class blog/canvas by 7pm on the day before class. Students may occasionally share parts of their entries during discussion.

  • Close-Readings (30% of the final grade - 15% each): Students will be required to provide two short readings (4-5 pages each) on two of the assigned readings. Students are encouraged to build on their weekly responses and on class discussions for the close-readings. Close readings can refer to secondary sources and theoretical readings, but should remain focused on the assigned texts.

  • Final Portfolio (40% of the final grade): Students have two options for the final portfolio. Option A) A critical introduction (1-2pages), all responses papers in polished form, and a research paper (6-8 pages). Option B) A critical introduction (1-2 pages), all response papers in polished form, a creative component pending my approval (examples: a video, play, archive- based project, etc.) and a 3-4 pages rationale. For both, a minimum of 5 peer-reviewed articles and outside academic sources must be consulted. In preparation for the portfolio students will compose a 1-page proposal outlining their research project and/or creative component, as well as a preliminary bibliography. During our last meeting all students will briefly present their projects to the class.

Requirements:

• Readings in French and English will be assigned. All readings must be completed prior to our discussion. Please bring all assigned texts to class.
• All written-work must adhere to the MLA style guidelines. Students unfamiliar with this style might consult the very detailed website of the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
• Attendance is mandatory, however, each student will be permitted three excused absences. Every absence thereafter will result in the deduction of one point off your final grade. Only documented emergencies will be considered excused absences.
• Late assignments will be accepted only if previously discussed with the instructor.
• Academic honesty is required of all students. For more information please refer to the Academic Code of our school, but please see me if you have any doubts or questions.

Diversity and Inclusion statement:
In order for the class to be an equally rich opportunity for all of us to learn, it is essential to respect each other’s perspectives, backgrounds and beliefs. As understanding the particulars of individual experiences is a central feature of gender and sexuality studies, it is important that the course reflects this commitment. The classroom should be a safe and comfortable environment for all to exchange opinions, ask questions an learn. If you feel like something has been said or done to make you feel uncomfortable in class or in the readings, please contact me or any other trusted facilitator.

Accessibility and Accommodations:
Please inform me early in the term if you have a disability or other conditions that might require accommodations or modification of any of these course procedures. You may speak with me after class or during office hours. For more information, please contact Student and Employee Accessibility Services at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Students in need of short-term academic advice or support can contact one of the deans in the
Dean of the College office.

Mauvais Genre Calendar

- Calendar -

I. La littérature au féminin : Lire et écrire la femme 

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WEEK 1: L’éternel féminin

  • Simone de Beauvoir, « Mythes », Le  Deuxième Sexe (1949)

 

WEEK 2: Le procès d’Emma

  • Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857)

  • Procès intenté à M. Gustave Flaubert devant le tribunal correctionnel de Paris (6e Chambre) sous la présidence de M. Dubarle, audiences des 31 janvier et 7 février 1857 : réquisitoire et jugement. (http://www.bmlisieux.com/curiosa/epinard.htm)

  • Margaret Cohen, « Flaubert lectrice : Flaubert’s lady reader », MLN (2007)

Assignment: Beginning of the online notebook and in-class writing workshop.

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WEEK 3 : La littérature a-t-elle un genre ?

  • Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

  • Mary Orr, Flaubert : Writing the masculine (2000), « Madame Bovary »

  • Barbey d’Aurevilly, Introduction pour « Les Bas-Bleus », Les Œuvres et les hommes, vol.2 (1878)

Assignment: Online notebook.

II. Points de vue féminins, perspectives féministes

 

WEEK 4: Le canon en question

  • Elaine Showalter « Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness », Critical Inquiry (1981)

  • Saba Bahar, Valérie Cossy, « Le Canon en question : l’objet littéraire dans le sillage des mouvements féministes », Nouvelles questions féministes (2003)

  • Jane Gallop, « Ethics of Reading », Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (2000)

Assignment: Online notebook.
 

WEEK 5: Particularités de l’écriture féminine

  • Georges Sand, « Pourquoi les femmes à l’Académie ? » (1863)

  • Bernard Lahire, Par écrit. Ethnologie des écritures quotidiennes (2008), « Masculin-Féminin, l’écriture domestique »

  • Hélène Cixous, « Le rire de la méduse », L'Arc (1975)

  • Béatrice Slama, « de la ‘littérature féminine’ à ‘l’écriture-femme’ », Littérature (1981)

Assignment: First close reading due. No online notebook and no in-class writing workshop.

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III. privé/public : estomper les frontières

 

WEEK 6: L’écriture domestique: un projet anti-féministe ?

  • Colette, La Chatte (1933)

  • Monou Ozouf, Mots des Femmes (1995), « Colette ou la gourmandise »

  • Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard, Pierre Mayol, L’Invention du quotidien (1990), « La Convenance », « Espaces privés »

  • Anne Romines, The Home Plot (1992), Introduction

Assignment: Online notebook.

 

WEEK 7: Femmes animales : transgresser le genre, transgresser l’espèce

  • Colette, La Chatte

  • Fabrizio Impellizzeri,« Polyphonie et polymorphisme félins dans l’œuvre de Colette », Francophonia (2011)

  • Margaret Simpson Maurin, « Du mouvement et de l’immobilité dans La Chatte de Colette », Dalhousie French Studies (1984)

Assignment: Online notebook.

 

WEEK 8 : Entre femmes

  • Marguerite Duras, Détruire, dit-elle (1969).

  • Annie Grace Helena Ring « Ecrire le patriarcat, le corps et la topographie du désordre Les Mots pour le dire et Détruire, dit-elle », French Studies Bulletin (2008)

  • Renate Günther, « Fluid Boundaries : the Violence of Non-Identity in Marguerite Duras’ Representations of Female Relationships », South Central Review (2003)

Assignment: Online notebook.

IV. Une sexualité « déplacée »

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WEEK 9 : Identifier la différence

  • Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus (1884)

  • Luce Irigaray, Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un (1977)

  • Judith Butler, « Contingent Foundations : Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism », Feminist Theorize the Political (1992)

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WEEK 10 : La pornographie, une libération sexuelle ?

  • Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus

  • Michel Foucault, Histoire de la Sexualité I (1976), « L’Hypothèse Répressive ».

  • Gayle Rubin, « Thinking Sex : Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality », Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader

  • Catharine MacKinnon, « Sexuality », Feminist Philosophy Reader

Assignment: Online notebook.

 

WEEK 11: Ni deux, ni mères : repenser le mariage et la maternité

  • Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus

  • Michel Foucault, (1976), Histoire de la Sexualité I, « Le dispositif de sexualité ».

  • Lee Edelman, No Future (2004) extraits

  • Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater (1977)

Assignment: Second close reading due. No online notebook and no in-class writing workshop.

 

IV. Exercices de style : travestissement et littérature queer

 

WEEK 12: Le genre et la langue

  • Anne F. Garréta, Sphinx (1986)

  • Monique Wittig, La Pensée straight (2007), « La pensée straight », « La marque du genre »

  • Marie-Anne Paveau « La féminisation des noms de métiers: résistances sociales et solutions linguistiques », Le français aujourd’hui (2002) en ligne: http://www.cairn.info/revue-le-francais-aujourd-hui-2002-1-page-121.htm.

  • Yaguello, Marina, Le Sexe des mots (1995), extraits

Assignments: Online notebook.

Individual meetings with the instructor to discuss final portfolio

 

WEEK 13 : Littérature queer

  • Anne F. Garréta, Sphinx

  • Virginie Despentes, King Kong Theory (2006), extraits

  • Judith Butler, « Imitation and Gender Insubordination », Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (1993)

Assignment: Last entry for the online notebook due.

One page description and annotated bibliography for the final project due.

 

WEEK 14 : butch, lesbiennes et travesties

  • Anne F. Garréta, Sphinx

  • Madeleine Pelletier, L’éducation féministe des filles et autres textes (1978), extraits

  • Marie-Hélène Bourcier, Des « femmes travesties » aux pratiques transgenres : repenser et queeriser le travestissement », CLIO (1999)

  • Gretchen Schultz, Sapphic Fathers : Discourses of Same Sex Desire from Nineteenth Century France (2014), « Dystopian Sapphism : Anti-Feminism, Class Warfare, and the Elite Novel at the Fin de Siècle »

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