BA Film Studies and French

“Scandalous”, “libertine”, “decadent”, and “superb” are words used by readers to describe one of the most provocative and innovative French novels. First published in 1782, the posterity of Laclos’ Les Liaisons dangereuses is remarkable: the novel has been adapted for the stage (theatre and opera), radio, and the movies in different countries (USA, China, Korea). Some of the themes weaved into the fabric of the text are eroticism and modesty, manipulation and revenge, emancipation and bondage. In this course unit, we will read the novel alongside two cinematographic adaptations (one French, one Hollywood production), and a short play written in the former East Bloc by Heiner Müller. We will address questions of adaptation (novel to film) and modes of epistolary expressions (letters vs short messages including text messages)

To provide an overview of the main themes of libertine literature

To familiarize students with pre-revolutionary French culture and literature

To provide students with key concepts of epistolary literature

To introduce students to theories of adaptation

Some of the lectures for this unit will be delivered online.

Analyse movie and theatrical adaptations

Study epistolary texts (letters and messages)

Use appropriate literary and film studies terminology to study the novel and its adaptations

Use suitable skills and appropriate terms to study epistolary and message rhetoric

Express ideas logically and elegantly in oral and written French

Communicate strategically using messages

Refine critical skills

Develop original ideas and engage with existing theories

Improve public speaking and group participation.

Commentary - 40%

Essay - 60%

Dagen (Jean), « D’une logique de l’écriture : Les Liaisons dangereuses », Littératures, n^o 4, 1981, p. 33-52.

Humbert (Brigitte), De la lettre à l’écran. « Les Liaisons dangereuses », Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2000.

Pomeau (René), Laclos, ou le paradoxe, Paris, Hachette, 1985.

Seth (Catriona), « Genre et ‘gender’ : des Liaisons dangereuses (1782) au Mauvais Genre (2000) », D’un genre à l’autre, M. Guéret-Laferté et D. Mortier éd., Rouen, PURH, 2008, p. 163-177.

Versini (Laurent), Laclos et la tradition. Essai sur les sources et la technique des Liaisons dangereuses, Paris, Klincksieck, 1968.