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Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on Modern French Literature
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Oxford: Frederick Hall, 1916. Contemporary intellectual movements in France must be understood as in large measure a reaction against the “romanticist” attitude of the nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century several conflicting tendencies were manifested, but they may all be traced to a common source. The germs of all these tendencies are found in Rousseau. Short sketch of Rousseau’s life. His public career consisted in a struggle against His main tendencies were Exaltation of the Emphasis upon Humanitarianism: belief in the fundamental goodness of human nature. Depreciation of His great faults were Intense egotism. Insincerity. Romanticism stands for The beginning of the twentieth century has witnessed a return to the ideals of classicism. These may roughly be characterized as It must be remembered that the French mind is highly theoretic– directed by theories–and that no theory ever remains merely a theory of art, or a theory of religion, or a theory of politics. Any theory which commences in one of these spheres inevitably extends to the others. It is therefore difficult to separate these various threads for purposes of exposition. The present-day movement is partly a return to the ideals of the seventeenth century. A classicist in art and literature will therefore be likely to adhere to a monarchical form of government, and to the Catholic Church. But there are many cross-currents. Our best procedure is to sketch briefly the relation of politics, literature and religion, and then consider the work of a few representatives of these three interests. Politics: General feeling of dissatisfaction with the Third Republic, crystallising since the Dreyfus trial. Hence two currents: one toward syndicalism, more radical than nineteenth-century socialism, the other toward monarchy. Both currents express revolt against the same state of affairs, and consequently tend to meet. Religion: Neo-Catholicism is partly a political movement, associated with monarchism, and partly a reaction against the sceptical scientific view of the nineteenth century. It is very strongly marked in socialistic writers as well. It must not be confused with modernism, which is a purely intellectual movement. Literature: Movement away from both realism and purely personal expression of emotion. Growing devotion to form, finding expression in new forms. Disapproval of dilettantism and aestheticism. Expression of the new political and religious attitudes in literature. We shall consider men of letters only as they represent political, religious, or philosophical tendencies. Barrès illustrates the transition between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. His two phases: Begins as an exponent of egotistic aestheticism in the “nineties”, comparable to J. K. Huysmans and Oscar Wilde. His early novels. Novels of Italy. His entrance into politics as a deputy. In his later novels he returns to the scenes of his childhood–Lorraine. Becomes the champion of the irreconcilables of Alsace-Lorraine.Barrès’s later novels: These novels illustrate two features of nationalism: growing spirit of revenge against Germany, and the cult of the soil–the local, as contrasted with the Parisian spirit–which has been taken up by...
