In addition to the midterm and final, a final research paper will be required. The first part will present a brief overview of the history and brances of linguistics. A primary challenge is to distinguish between the form and the vision it embodies, that is, between tragedy and the tragic. Moreover, certain premises in Barthes's essay are tested. On the one hand, the 18th-century drame is not the only dramatic form that proves useful in defining tragedy and the tragic.
Discussion also centers, for example, on comic and redemptive as well as tragic actions.
On the other hand, attention turns to such questions as whether the tragic vanishes when tragedy falls silent, thus whether it persists beyond the three privileged centuries, and whether non-dramatic genres also manifest the tragic. Students are assessed on the basis of performance in class, the oral report, the term paper, and a final essay. All discussion, oral presentations, and written work are in French. Starting with a close reading of Bataille's last book, we will attempt to investigate this motive and its paradoxical implications in modern literary thoughts. This seminar will be taught in French and will be an even mix of lectures, presentations and discussions.