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Listed in: French, as FREN-358
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Raphael Sigal (Section 01)
In an essay titled “What is literature?” French philosopher Michel Foucault writes: “…It is characteristic that literature, ever since it has existed, since the nineteenth century, ever since it offered Western culture this strange figure we wonder about, it is characteristic that literature has always assigned itself a certain task, and that task is precisely the assassination of literature.” To investigate this symbolic assassination, we are going to read novels that confront and critique the traditional novel form. The writers we will read play with the conventions of the novel to interrogate the relationship between truth and fiction. They experiment with new narrative forms. They do not seek to create a fictional world that is realistic and similar to our world, but to open a gap between what happens inside the book and what happens around us in order to open our eyes and minds to new possibilities. The genre of the novel morphs into a philosophical and critical space that interrogates in turn the function of literature. Authors may include Samuel Beckett, Maurice Blanchot, Theresa Hak Kung Cha, Roland Barthes, Dany Laferrière, Eric Chevillard, and Hélène Cixous. Taught in French.Spring Semester. Professor Sigal.