French literature
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{{French literature}}
:''This article is a general introduction to French literature. For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods, see the separate historical articles in the template to the right.''
'''French literature''' is, generally speaking, [[literature]] written in the [[French language]], particularly by citizens of [[France]]; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak other traditional [[languages of France|non-French languages]]. Literature written in French by citizens of other nations such as [[Belgium]], [[Switzerland]], [[Canada]], [[Senegal]], [[Algeria]], [[Morocco]], etc. is referred to as [[Francophone literature]].
==French literature==
The [[French language]] is a [[Romance languages|romance dialect]] derived from [[Vulgar Latin]] and heavily influenced principally by [[Celtic language|Celtic]] and [[Frankish language|Frankish]]. Beginning in the 11th century, literature written in medieval French was one of the oldest [[Vernacular literature|vernacular (non-Latin) literatures]] in western Europe and it became a key source of literary themes in the [[Middle Ages]] across the continent.
Although the European prominence of French literature was eclipsed in part by vernacular literature in Italy in the 14th century, literature in France in the 16th century underwent a major creative evolution, and through the political and artistic programs of the [[Ancien Régime]], French literature came to dominate European letters in the 17th century.
In the 18th century, French became the literary [[lingua franca]] and diplomatic language of western Europe (and, to a certain degree, in America), and French letters have had a profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time being heavily influenced by these other national traditions (for example: British and German Romanticism in the nineteenth century). French literary developments of the 19th and 20th centuries have had a particularly strong effect on modern world literature, including: [[symbolism (arts)|symbolism]], [[naturalism (literature)|naturalism]], the "[[roman-fleuve]]s" of [[Balzac]], [[Zola]] and [[Proust]], [[surrealism]], [[existentialism]], and the "[[Theatre of the Absurd]]".
French [[imperialism]] and [[colonialism]] in the Americas, Africa, and the far East have brought the French language to non-European cultures that are transforming and adding to the French literary experience today.
Under the aristocratic ideals of the ancien régime (the "honnête homme"), the nationalist spirit of post-revolutionary France, and the mass educational ideals of the Third Republic and modern France, the French have come to have a profound cultural attachment to their literary heritage. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater and poetry (often learnt by heart). The literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary prizes are major news. The [[Académie française]] and the [[Institut de France]] are important linguistic and artistic institutions in France, and French television features shows on writers and poets (the most watched show in French history was [[Apostrophes]], a weekly talk show on literature and the arts). Literature matters deeply to the people of France and plays an important role in their sense of identity.
[[As of 2006]], French literary people have been awarded more [[Nobel Prize]]s in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country, although writers in English have won twice as many Nobels as the French.
==Literatures of other languages of France==
Besides literature written in the French language, the literary culture of France may include literature written in other languages of France. In the medieval period many of the competing [[standard language]]s in various territories that later came to make up the territory of modern France each produced literary traditions, such as [[Anglo-Norman literature]] and [[Provençal literature]].
Literature in the [[regional language]]s continued through to the 18th century, although increasing eclipsed by the rise of the French language and influenced by the prevailing French literary model. Conscious [[language revival]] movements in the 19th century, such as [[Félibrige]] in [[Provence]], coupled with wider literacy and regional presses, enabled a new flowering of literary production in the [[Norman language]] and others.
[[Frédéric Mistral]], a poet in [[Occitan]] (1830–1914), was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1904.
[[Breton literature]] since the 1920s has been lively, despite the falling number of speakers. In 1925, [[Roparz Hemon]] founded the periodical ''[[Gwalarn]]'' which for 19 years tried to raise the language to the level of other great "international" languages by creating original works covering all genres and by proposing Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946, ''Al Liamm'' took up the role of ''Gwalam''. Other reviews came into existence and gave Breton a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. Among writers in Breton are [[Yann-Ber Kalloc'h]], [[Anjela Duval]] and [[Per-Jakez Hélias]].
[[Picard language|Picard]] literature maintains a level of literary output, especially in theatrical writing. [[Walloon language|Walloon]] literature is bolstered by the more significant literary production in the language in [[Belgium]].
[[Catalan literature]] and literature in the [[Basque language]] also benefit from the existence of a readership outside the borders of France.
== French Nobel Prize in Literature winners ==
The following French or French language authors have won a [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]:
*1901 - [[Sully Prudhomme]] (The first Nobel Prize in literature)
*1904 - [[Frédéric Mistral]] (wrote in [[Occitan]])
*1911 - [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] (Belgian)
*1915 - [[Romain Rolland]]
*1921 - [[Anatole France]]
*1927 - [[Henri Bergson]]
*1937 - [[Roger Martin du Gard]]
*1947 - [[André Gide]]
*1952 - [[François Mauriac]]
*1957 - [[Albert Camus]]
*1960 - [[Saint-John Perse]]
*1964 - [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (declined the prize)
*1969 - [[Samuel Beckett]] (Irish, wrote in English and French)
*1985 - [[Claude Simon]]
*2000 - [[Gao Xingjian]] (writes in Chinese)
==French literary awards==
* [[Grand Prix de Littérature Policière]] - created in 1948, for crime and detective fiction.
* [[Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française]] - created 1918.
* [[Prix Décembre]] - created in 1989.
* [[Prix Femina]] - created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women.
* [[Prix Goncourt]] - created 1903, given to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year".
* [[Prix Goncourt des Lycéens]] - created in 1987.
* [[Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud]] - created in 1957.
* [[Prix Médicis]] - created 1958, awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match their talent."
* [[Prix Renaudot]] - created in 1926.
* [[Prix Tour-Apollo Award]] - 1972-1990, given to the best science fiction novel published in French during the preceding year.
* [[Prix des Deux Magots]] - created in 1933.
== Selected list of French literary classics ==
===Fiction===
*[[Medieval French literature|Middle Ages]]
** anonymous - ''La Chanson de Roland'' (''[[The Song of Roland]]'')
** [[Chrétien de Troyes]] - ''Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion'' (''[[Yvain, the Knight of the Lion]]''), ''Lancelot, ou le Chevalier à la charrette'' (''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart]]'')
** various - ''Tristan et Iseult'' (''[[Tristan and Iseult]]'')
** anonymous - ''Lancelot-Graal'' ''([[Lancelot-Grail]])'', also known as the ''prose Lancelot'' or the ''Vulgate Cycle''
** [[Guillaume de Lorris]] and [[Jean de Meung]] - ''[[Roman de la Rose]]'' ("Romance of the Rose")
* [[French Renaissance literature|16th century]]
** [[François Rabelais]] - ''[[Pantagruel]]'', ''[[Gargantua]]''
* [[French literature of the 17th century|17th century]]
** [[Madame de Lafayette]] - ''[[La Princesse de Clèves]]''
* [[French literature of the 18th century|18th century]]
** [[Voltaire]] - ''[[Candide]]''
** [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] - ''[[Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse]]''
** [[Denis Diderot]] - ''Jacques le fataliste'' (''Jacques the Fatalist'')
* [[French literature of the 19th century|19th century]]
** [[Stendhal]] - ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''[[The Red and the Black]]''), ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' (''[[The Charterhouse of Parma]]'')
** [[Honoré de Balzac]] - ''[[La Comédie humaine]]'' ("The Human Comedy", a novel cycle which includes ''Père Goriot'' and ''Eugénie Grandet'')
** [[Gustave Flaubert]] - ''[[Madame Bovary]]'', ''[[Salammbô (novel)|Salammbô]]'', ''L'Éducation sentimentale'' (''[[Sentimental Education]]'')
** [[Edmond de Goncourt|Edmond]] and [[Jules de Goncourt]] - ''Germinie Lacerteux''
** [[Guy de Maupassant]] - ''[[Bel Ami]]'', ''La Parure'' (''[[The Necklace]]''), other short stories
** [[Émile Zola]] - ''[[Les Rougon-Macquart]]'' (a novel cycle which includes ''[[L'Assommoir]]'', ''[[Nana (novel)|Nana]]'' and ''[[Germinal (novel)|Germinal]]'')
** [[Victor Hugo]] - ''[[Les Misérables]]'' (1862)
** [[Alexandre Dumas]] - ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]''
* [[French literature of the 20th century|20th century]]
** [[André Gide]] - ''Les Faux-monnayeurs'' (''[[The Counterfeiters (novel)|The Counterfeiters]]''), ''[[The Immoralist]]''
** [[Marcel Proust]] - ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' (''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'')
** [[André Breton]] - ''[[Nadja]]''
** [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]] - ''Voyage au bout de la nuit'' (''[[Journey to the End of the Night]]'')
** [[Colette]] - ''[[Gigi]]''
** [[Jean Genet]] - ''[[Our Lady of the Flowers|Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs]]''
** [[Albert Camus]] - ''L'Étranger'' '' ([[The Stranger (novel)|The Stranger]])''
** [[Michel Butor]] - ''[[La Modification]]''
** [[Marguerite Yourcenar]] - ''[[Mémoires d'Hadrien]]''
** [[Alain Robbe-Grillet]] - ''Dans le labyrinthe''
** [[Georges Perec]] - ''[[Life: A User's Manual|La vie mode d'emploi]]''
** [[Robert Pinget]] - ''[[Passacaille]]''
===Poetry===
* [[François Villon]] - ''Les Testaments''
* [[Pierre de Ronsard]], [[Joachim du Bellay]] and other poets of "[[La Pléiade]]" - poems
* [[La Fontaine]] - ''The [[Fables]]''
* [[Victor Hugo]] - ''Les Contemplations''
* [[Alphonse de Lamartine]] - ''Méditations poétiques''
* [[Charles Baudelaire]] - ''[[Les Fleurs du mal]]''
* [[Paul Verlaine]] - ''Jadis et naguère''
* [[Arthur Rimbaud]] - ''[[Une Saison en Enfer]]''
* [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] - ''Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard'' ("A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance")
* [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] - ''Alcools''
* [[Francis Ponge]]
* [[Raymond Queneau]]
===Theatre===
* [[Pierre Corneille]] - ''[[Le Cid]]'', ''Horace''
* [[Molière]] - ''[[Tartuffe]]'', ''[[The Misanthrope]]'', ''[[Dom Juan]]'', ''L'Avare'' (''[[The Miser]]''), ''[[Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme]]'', ''L'Ecole des femmes'' (''[[The School for Wives]]'')
* [[Jean Racine]] - ''[[Phèdre]]'', ''[[Andromaque]]''
* [[Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux|Marivaux]] - ''Jeu de l'amour et du hasard''
* [[Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais| Beaumarchais]] - ''Le Barbier de Séville'' (''[[The Barber of Seville (play)|The Barber of Seville]]''), ''La Folle journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro'' ([[The Marriage of Figaro (play)|The Marriage of Figaro]]'')
* [[Edmond Rostand]] - ''[[Cyrano de Bergerac (play)|Cyrano de Bergerac]]''
* [[Jean Giraudoux]] - ''[[The Trojan War Will Not Take Place]]''
* [[Jean Anouilh]] - ''[[Becket]]'', ''[[Antigone (Anouilh play)|Antigone]]''
* [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] - ''[[No Exit]]''
* [[Samuel Beckett]] - ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', ''[[Endgame (play)|Endgame]]''
* [[Eugène Ionesco]] - ''[[The Bald Soprano]]'', ''[[Rhinoceros (play)|Rhinoceros]]''
* [[Jean Genet]] - ''[[The Maids]]'', ''The Blacks''
===Non-fiction===
* [[Michel de Montaigne]] - ''[[Essays (Montaigne)|The Essays]]''
* [[Blaise Pascal]] - ''[[Pensées|Les Pensées]]''
* [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|François de La Rochefoucauld]] - ''The Maxims''
* [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] - ''[[Discourse on the Arts and Sciences]]'', ''[[Social Contract (Rousseau)|The Social Contract]]''
* [[François-René de Chateaubriand]] - ''[[Génie du christianisme|Genius of Christianity]]'', ''[[Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe|Memoirs from Beyond Grave]]''
* [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] - ''[[Democracy in America]]''
* [[Jules Michelet]] - ''Histoire de France'', ''La Sorcière''
* [[Albert Camus]] - ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]''
* [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] - ''[[Existentialism is a Humanism]]'', ''[[Being and Nothingness]]''
== Literary criticism ==
*[[Nicolas Boileau]]
*[[Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve]]
*[[Hippolyte Taine]]
*[[Jacques Lacan]]
*[[Paul Bénichou]]
*[[Roland Barthes]]
*[[Jean-François Lyotard]]
*[[Jacques Derrida]]
*[[Julia Kristeva]]
== Poetry ==
{{main|French poetry}}
*[[Parnassian]]
*[[Romanticism]]
*[[Symbolism (arts)]]
*[[Surrealism]]
== See also ==
* [[French culture]]
* [[French art]]
* [[List of French language authors]]
* [[List of French language poets]]
* [[French science fiction]]
* [[Fantastique]]
== External links ==
* [http://www.library.yale.edu/Internet/frenchlit.html French Language & Literature Resources at Yale University]
* [http://clicnet.swarthmore.edu/litterature/litterature.html Littérature francophone virtuelle (ClicNet)] online texts
* [http://un2sg4.unige.ch/www/athena/html/francaut.html Athena Textes Français] online texts
* [http://abu.cnam.fr/ ABU] online texts
* [http://www.digital-librarian.com/frenchlit.html French Literature at ''Digital Librarian'']
*[[Image:Commons-logo.svg|20px|<nowiki></nowiki>]] [[commons:Category:French literature|'''French literature on Commons''']]
*[http://www.maulpoix.net/US/indexa.html Jean-Michel Maulpoix & Co.: Modern and contemporary french literature] site maintained by prominent French poet [[Jean-Michel Maulpoix]]
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