Intermediate(B2+/C1)
1.5 hours per week for 10 weeks Starting April 6, 2023
At Online via Zoom
Time Slots
About this Class
In this course, you’ll get an in-depth look and analysis of three masterpieces of the absurde movement.
Samuel Beckett's En attendant Godot is a play in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives...
Albert Camus' L’Etranger tells the story of Meursault, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills a man on a beach in French Algiers. He is tried and sentenced to death...
In Ionesco's La cantatrice chauve, the Smiths are a traditional couple from London who have invited another couple, the Martins, over for a visit. They are joined later by the Smiths' maid, Mary, and the local fire chief, who is also Mary's lover. The two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems... All three works and authors are considered to be major contributors to the absurdist literary movement, tied in with the post-war existentialism movement.
Class is taught by Michaela.
Spring 2023 Session Reading List
1- Samuel Beckett: En attendant Godot2- Albert Camus: L’Etranger
3- Ionesco: La cantatrice chauve
Please note that the reading list does reflect the order in which the books will be discussed in class.
Books can be ordered on the MEP Education website here.
OBJECTIFS DU COURS:
Study 20th century works by Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, and Eugène Ionesco (on average 50 pages per week) ; uncover questions raised by absurdist litterature ; anayze performance arts ; analyze a short novel ; debate concepts arrising from existentialism.
1) Comprendre les contextes culturels, historiques et géographiques des écrits
2) Identifier les thèmes importants et parler intertextualité et interculturalité
3) Analyser le style littéraire de chaque auteur et les styles de narration
4) Utiliser le lexique d’analyse littéraire
5) Travailler l’argumentation orale et écrite à travers des débats, compte-rendus et exercices de création littéraire