Littérature populaire

This module aims to provide students with an overview of three prominent genres in genre literature, namely crime fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

1. American Crime Fiction (weeks 1-6, Benoît Tadié)

With its roots in the industrial revolution, the chaotic development of American cities and the sense of social disintegration and private anguish that grew out of them, American crime fiction has developed as a specific literary tradition (often called “noir fiction”) emphasizing violence, alienation and the pervasive nature of evil, as against the reassuring narratives of the British tradition of crime fiction represented by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

 This course will look at the birth and early evolution of American crime fiction, seeking to read it from the perspective of American social history in general and, more specifically, of the impact of World War I on writers.

 As an introduction, we will look at the origins of American crime fiction in a story by Edgar Allan Poe, the founder of the genre: “The Murders of the Rue Morgue.”

 Then, we will look at the evolution of American crime fiction as represented, in the years 1900-1930, by two short stories (Jack London’s “Just Meat” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers”) and one novel (Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest). An extract from John Dos Passos’s novel 1919 will help us to link the evolution of American crime fiction with the experience of World War I.

 Texts studied (compulsory reading):

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)

Jack London, “Just Meat” (1907)

Ernest Hemingway, “The Killers” (1927)

John Dos Passos, “The Body of an American”, from 1919 (USA, vol. 2, 1932)

Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (1927, 1929)

These texts are available on line.

2. Fantasy & Science Fiction (weeks 7-12, Amelha Timoner)

Criticised for not being serious enough, for merely being badly written escapist fiction for children as opposed to mimetic or “real” literature throughout the decades, fantasy (to be differentiated from the fantastic) and especially science fiction have managed to start gaining legitimacy in academia.

In this module, we will study the history of both genres before focusing on various sub-genres and narrative devices through the analysis of short stories and excerpts from novels. In doing so, we will show that, while indeed escapist, both genres more than often bring to the fore and address issues regarding identity, politics, gender inequality, etc., in a unique way, rendered possible by their non-mimetic nature.

Short stories and excerpts from novels will be given in class.

Optional reading

Asimov, Isaac, “Robot Dreams” (1986)

Butler, Octavia, The Parable of the Sower (1993)

Dick, Philip K., Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)

Kuang, Rebecca F., Babel, or The Necessity of Violence (2022)

Le Guin, Ursula, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

Lewis, C.S., The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Novik, Naomi, Uprooted (2015)

Russ, Joanna, “When It Changed” (1972)

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)

Secondary Sources

Besson, Anne. D'Asimov à Tolkien : cycles et séries dans la littérature de genre, CNRS éditions, Paris, 2004.

Besson, Anne. Dictionnaire de la fantasy, Vendémiaire, Paris, 2018.

Besson, Anne. Les Pouvoirs de l'enchantement : usages politiques de la fantasy et de la science-fiction, Vendémiaire, Paris, 2021.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press, New York, 2006.

Langlet, Irène. La Science-fiction. Lecture et poétique d’un genre littéraire, Armand Collin, Paris, 2006.

Lewis, David. “The Paradoxes of Time Travel”, American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 13-2, 1976, pp. 145-152.

Saint-Gelais, Richard. L'Empire du pseudo : modernités de la science-fiction, Nota Bene, Québec, 1999.

Suvin, Darko. “Victorian Science Fiction, 1871-85: The Rise of the Alternative History Sub-Genre”, Science Fiction Studies vol. 10-2, 1983, pp. 148-169.

Wolf, Mark J.P.. The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds, Routledge, NY & London, 2018.

Connaissance de l’histoire littéraire et de son contexte général ; mise en rapport des textes littéraires et de leur environnement historique et social.

Compréhension de textes littéraires en anglais, pratique de la lecture attentive et informée.

Maîtrise accrue de la réflexion, et de la rédaction en anglais, sur les textes littéraires.

Session 1

- Contrôle continu : Deux examens écrits (commentaire de texte), un à la mi-semestre, l’autre en fin de semestre, comptant chacun pour 50% de la note finale.

- Contrôle dérogatoire : une épreuve écrite en trois heures (commentaire de texte).

Session 2

Un devoir écrit de 2h (commentaire de texte).

Suivant la classification du CECRL (Cadre Européen Commun pour les Langues) :

-niveau d'anglais B2 (minimum), ou C1 de préférence.

-niveau de français B2 (pour les étudiants étrangers).