911爆料网

Module description

鈥淭here is a very dangerous thing in literature,鈥� wrote one of Balzac鈥檚 critics in 1847, 鈥渁nd that is the excess of truth.鈥� Like many critics of the mid-nineteenth century, this one worried that novelists were unveiling things one might simply not want to see. What he called the 鈥渋ncessant, merciless observation鈥� of the 鈥減hysiological鈥� novelists came increasingly to be labelled by other critics as a 鈥渞ealist鈥� vision that endangered literary and social values.

Twentieth century critics--among them Luk谩cs, Auerbach, Barthes, and Jameson--have given us retooled notions of what served, in the nineteenth century, as a label of denigration. We take for granted today that the nineteenth century novel tradition includes something we might call 鈥渞ealist鈥� and that the visual avant-garde of the mid-nineteenth century might best be grouped under that label.

This module sets out to re-examine those premises, by looking at the material conditions for the definition of 鈥渞ealism鈥� in the nineteenth century. Through readings of contemporary press criticism of the novel and painting, we will try to reposition the concept of realism. Through discussions of nineteenth-century theories of vision we will elaborate a different framework for thinking about the realist gaze. Student presentations will develop new ways of thinking about nineteenth-century observation and the visual and literary realms it engaged.

Topics to be considered: Realism as a critical concept; 鈥渞ealism鈥� in Stendhal and Delacroix and the tragedies of history; Balzac and vision; the social novel; women 鈥渞ealists鈥�?; the reception of Courbet and Manet; censorship and the realist novel; naturalism, the morgue, and the ends of realism; and photography鈥檚 real. Novels by Stendhal, Balzac, Sue, Flaubert, and Zola. Painting, photography, 19th-century criticism, and contemporary theoretical texts also to be considered.

Preparatory Reading and Required Texts:

• Suggested *background reading* before our course: Flaubert, Madame Bovary (bring a copy of the "Proc猫s," included in any modern ed., to our first class)

• Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir (Garnier-Flammarion or Livre de poche)

• Eug猫ne Sue, Les Myst猫res de Paris (Gallimard Quarto, ed. Lyon-Caen; or the 4-vol. Charles Gosselin 18431844 edition via Gallica), Premi猫re-Sixi猫me Parties

• Honor茅 de Balzac, Cousine Bette (ONLY Folio edition, ed. Pierre Barb茅ris)

• Gustave Flaubert, L'脡ducation sentimentale (any modern edition)

• 脡mile Zola, Th茅r猫se Raquin (Gallimard Folio Classiques or Gallimard Folio Plus)

• Paintings by Eug猫ne Delacroix (esp. Libert茅 guidant le peuple, Mus茅e du Louvre)

• Gustave Courbet (see Gustave Courbet, Exh. Cat. Grand Palais/Metropolitan Museum, 2008), and 脡douard Manet (see Fran莽oise Cachin, et al., Edouard Manet, Exh. Cat. Grand Palais/Metropolitan Museum, 1983).

• Photography by Bruno Braquehais and Auguste Bell

• Secondary Reading

• Critical texts will include excerpts from Auerbach, Watt, Luk谩cs, Barthes, Bersani, J. Hillis Miller, Franco Moretti, Fredric Jameson, as well as readings from the following:

• Linda Nochlin, Realism

• Michael Fried, Courbet's Modernism

• T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life

• Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer

• Margaret Cohen and Christopher Prendergast, Spectacles of Realism

• Margaret Cohen, The Sentimental Education of the Novel

• Elizabeth Anne McCauley, Industrial Madness: Commercial Photography in Paris, 1848-1871

Please note: This module description is accurate at the time of publication. Amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.