FREN 294 02, Montréal, Paris, NY!

TR 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM
316 Buttrick Hall 

Professor Robert Barsky
personal website: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky
Department of Comparative Literature, French & Italian

Office hours, Wednesdays 1-3 or by appointment
Office: Furman Hall 227
Phone: (615) 322-2652
Fax: (615) 343-6909
e-mail: robert.barsky@vanderbilt.edu

Course Description:
In this course we will assess Montreal as a kind of turnstile of French ideas as they head South the United States, and American ideas as they are translated and transported overseas to Europe. While Quebec culture has grown up in its own way, influenced by but separated-off from either American or French influences, it nevertheless bears some critical imprints of cultural, intellectual and political ideas which have been transported via some seminal individuals. We will focus upon literary luminaries as they move, in person and in text, across borders, but we’ll also think about how communism, French snobbism, nationalism, syndicalism and artistic trends flow from New York to Paris and back, and how they come to be affected when they land, sometimes fleetingly, on the shores of bilingual, bi-and multi-cultural, and in some ways bi-national Montreal.

Course Materials:
Books:
Marc Angenot, Les Idéologies du ressentiment
Robert Barsky, Introduction à la théorie littéraire
Michel Larouche, ed. L'Aventure du cinéma québécois en France
Simonne Monet-Chartrand
Régine Robin, La Québécoite

Selections from the following films will be shown and discussed:
Denis Arcand, « La face cachée de la lune »
Denise Arcand, « Les Invasions barbares »
Paule Baillargeon, « La Cuisine rouge »
« Empreintes »
Bernard Gosselin, « L’Arche de Verre »
« Elvis Gratton, président du NON »
Gilles Groulx: “Première question sur le bonheur”; « Au pays de Zom » ; « Autour de Zom » ; « Entretien en six temps » ; « Les Héritiers »
« Ici Ados Canada »
Richard Lavoie, « Confidences d’une fanfare »
Jean-Claude Lord,  « Éclair au chocolat »
René Malo, « L’homme à tout faire »
Jacques Parizeau, « Les dernières heures »
Lynn Stopkewich, « Extase »

Course Policies:
1. Attendance: Regular attendance is crucial, since it offers us the occasion to work as a group and to build upon a base of common knowledge/discussions. If you must miss a class due to illness, please contact me in advance of the course. 

2. Audio-visual Work (films, radio broadcasts, …): These sessions are a very important aspect of the course; we will schedule them at a time that’s convenient for everyone.
 
3. Class Discussions: In the interest of stimulating conversation, some controversial topics will be discussed in the course. You are encouraged to present, explain and defend either your own views or views you think might engage your classmates. You are not expected to agree with the views of your instructor, or anyone else for that matter, nor will your grade depend in any way on the views you choose to express.
 
4. Essays: I will be available to discuss essays with you in advance of your handing them in. I strongly urge you to complete a first draft before the due date, and to bring it to me for corrections.  

5. Languages: This course will be given in three languages, English, French and French (with a québécois accent!), and discussions will occur in the language appropriate for the material. Written assignments must be in French, although citations can occur in English when appropriate.
  
Grading policies:
Assignments are worth 25% each, attendance and participation 25%. All papers are due in class on the day indicated in this schedule (below). There are no exams in this course!

Schedule (week-by-week):

August 25 Introduction


I. Music, Railways and Organized Crime in Paradise

August 30 The Story of Jazz in Montreal
Readings: "Preface", "Pre-History to 1925", "1925-1940", "Interlude 1".



September 1 Musical Interlude
Some examples of jazz from the era will be played in class
Readings: "Myron Sutton and the Canadian Ambassadors", "The Big Band Era"

September 6: "Louis Metcalf and the Arrival of Bebop"

*AND! A special screening of "Pull My Daisy"

Pull My Daisy

Pull my daisy
tip my cup
all my doors are open
Cut my thoughts
for coconuts
all my eggs are broken
Jack my Arden
gate my shades
woe my road is spoken
Silk my garden
rose my days
now my prayers awaken

Bone my shadow
dove my dream
start my halo bleeding
Milk my mind &
make me cream
drink me when you're ready
Hop my heart on
harp my height
seraphs hold me steady
Hip my angel
hype my light
lay it on the needy

Heal the raindrop
sow the eye
bust my dust again
Woe the worm
work the wise
dig my spade the same
Stop the hoax
whats the hex
where's the wake
how's the hicks
take my golden beam

Rob my locker
lick my rocks
leap my cock in school
Rack my lacks
lark my looks
jump right up my hole
Whore my door
beat my door
eat my snake of fool
Craze my hair
bare my poor
asshole shorn of wool

say my oops
ope my shell

Bite my naked nut
Roll my bones
ring my bell
call my worm to sup
Pope my parts
pop my pot
raise my daisy up
Poke my pap
pit my plum
let my gap be shut
 

- Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (19??)

September 8: "Show Biz and Jazz", Jazz à Paris

September 13: Leonard Cohen' s Poetry
Readings: Excerpts from Cohen's writings and music

See also: the Beat Generation Map


September 15: "Stranger Music" from Montreal to NY
We will listen to some of Cohen's work and discuss its influence in the US (and France).
film: "Le Déclin de l'Empire américain"

II. Nationalisme, Idéologie, Ressentiment

September 20: Le mouvement indépendentiste: Québec, les anglophones et la France
Lecture: Mordecai Richler, "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!", Denise Monière sur le nationalisme au Québec;  "Speak White"


September 22: "Le mouvement pacifiste, le fascisme, et la conscription", Paris-Montréal-NY
lecture: Les québécois et le mouvement pacifiste 11-68


September 27: "La voix des femmes", Montréal-Paris, et le féminisme québécois
lecture: Les québécois et le mouvement pacifiste 73-127; Nicole Brossard, L'Amer


September 29: "La voix des femmes"
lecture: Les québécois et le mouvement pacifiste 129-160, Nicole Brossard, L'Amer

October 4: La "Crise"
film (en cours): "Octobre"


October 6: Le mouvement indépendentiste vs. Trudeaumania

lecture:le manifeste du FLQ, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Statement about the Official Languages Bill; repatriating the Constitution; commemorating his life; Trudeau and "class warfare"; Cité libre; La Révolution tranquille

October 11: FILM!
film: Jacques Parizeau, « Les dernières heures », film: « Elvis Gratton, président du NON » 

October 13: l'Indépendence plus que jamais?
readings: SSJB; Mordechei Richler, Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Le Fédéralisme canadien; Charles Taylor


III. Théorie, langage, littérature

October 18: l'Approche Angenot
RENDEZ-VOUS A LA BIBLIOTHEQUE! Meet at the main library entrance, where Yvonne Boyer will guide you through research methods for the course.
Begin reading Marc Angenot, Les Idéologies du ressentiment, 11-66; 67-136, for discussion after the break.


October 20: 
FILM IN CLASS! Elvis Gratton!
First paper due, on any topic relating to the first two sections of the course (to be discussed with instructor) TO BE SENT BY E-MAIL BY MIDNIGHT, OCTOBER 20TH

October 25 fall break

October 27: Le rêve de la science, de la Russie vers la France
Lecture: Robert Barsky, "Formalisme", Introduction à la théorie littéraire


November 1: Le structuralisme à Paris
Lecture: Marc Angenot; Robert Barsky, "Structuralisme", Introduction à la théorie littéraire


November 3: De Paris à Yale, via NY
Lecture: Robert Barsky, "Narratologie", "Déconstruction" Introduction à la théorie littéraire


November 8: Vanderbilt versus Paris-NY
Lecture: Robert Barsky, "New Criticism", Introduction à la théorie littéraire


November 10: Marxisme en France, Marxist Literary Criticism, and Montreal's own féminisme et sociocritique
Lecture: Robert Barsky, "Marxisme", "Sociocritique"; Nicole Brossard, L'Amer


November 15: La littérature d'une parisienne à Montréal
Lecture: Régine Robin, La Québécoite

November 17: Modernity!
Guest lecture:

*Second (creative, if you wish) paper due by e-mail (midnight) OR outline of the final paper. Please place a copy in my mailbox before the return from Thanksgiving.


November 22 Thanksgiving

November 24 Thanksgiving

IV. Le Partage d'une vision

November 29: Modernism from Paris to New York; a pasted compendium of useful websites is at: www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky/modernism

December 1: "Le Refus global"
We will look at some paintings in class by Paul-émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Louis Comtois, ...



December 6: L'Art contemporain et les mouvements sociaux
Exhibition of works in class: Quebec Modernism


December 8 Conclusions

Friday, December 9th, Supplementary double class, 7PM Montreal/Paris time (8PM NY/Nashville), 1219 15th Avenue S, near Edgehill.

Final paper due December 15th, by e-mail with a copy in my mailbox.