5.18 Art and literature — Epoché
What you will be able to do Use sixty words of art and literature: stories, poetry, the stage and the screen, painting, music, talking about a work, and publishing. Talk about a novel, a poem or a play with the words a French reader uses: l'intrigue , le narrateur , le vers , la strophe , la mise en scène . Name the periods and movements of French literature that the readings of this phase belong to. Avoid the false friends of the arts: la nouvelle , le comédien , l'éditeur , le vers . Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the French aloud; all of them come back below. French English La lecture de la critique littéraire est très utile pour comprendre la littérature. [1] Reading literary criticism is very helpful to understanding literature. Dalí fut exclu du mouvement surréaliste. [2] Dali was kicked out of the surrealist movement. Quel est ton dessin animé préféré ? [3] What's your favorite cartoon? Le public applaudit l'artiste. [4] The audience applauded the performer. Tu utilises quel éditeur de texte ? [5] What text editor do you use? Il n'est pas poète mais romancier. [6] He is not a poet but a novelist. Prerequisites : 5.17 — the vocabulary of this lesson follows 5.17 Vocabulary , and the reading 7.16 Reading comes just before it. You talked about films and books in 6.15 Conversation , where le roman , le personnage and le chef-d'œuvre were taught. This lesson prepares the long readings of this phase, from Maupassant in 7.17 Reading to Proust in 7.32 Reading . The readings of this phase are works of French literature in the original: stories by Maupassant and Daudet, chapters of Zola, Hugo and Balzac, poems by Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Apollinaire. To read them well, and to talk about them afterwards, you need the vocabulary that French schools teach for describing a text. Much of it looks like English, because English took it from French or from Latin, but a few of the commonest words have quite different meanings, and the French tradition divides its literature into periods that every French reader knows. Word list Sixty words in seven groups: stories and storytellers, poetry, stage and screen, painting and the visual arts, music, talking about a work, and publishing. Stories and storytellers Word Meaning Notes la nouvelle fr short story; piece of news Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs A false friend: a novel is un roman . Je lis des nouvelles. [7] I am reading short stories. le récit fr story, account, narrative Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs The telling of events, true or invented. Son récit semble étrange. [8] His story sounds strange. le conte fr tale Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs le conte de fées , the fairy tale . C'est un conte moral. [9] It's a cautionary tale. l'écrivain fr writer Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs For a woman, une écrivaine or un écrivain . Il est écrivain. [10] He is a writer. le romancier fr novelist Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs Feminine la romancière . Elle n'est pas poète mais romancière. [11] She is not a poet but a novelist. le narrateur fr narrator Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs la narratrice , feminine. Nous ne savons pas qui est le narrateur. [12] We don't know who the narrator is. le chapitre fr chapter Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs Chapter numbers are often written in Roman figures. Lisez ce chapitre. [13] Read this chapter. l'intrigue fr plot Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs Also an intrigue; l'intrigue s'épaissit , the plot thickens . L'intrigue s'épaissit. [14] The plot thickens. le héros fr hero; main character Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs The h is aspirate: le héros , no liaison. C'est un héros. [15] He is a hero. l'héroïne fr heroine; main character Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs Also the drug, as in English. Le roman se termine par la mort de l'héroïne. [16] The novel ends with the heroine's death. le lecteur fr reader Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs Also a foreign-language assistant at a university. Un lecteur attentif aurait noté l'erreur. [17] A careful reader would have noticed the mistake. raconter fr to tell (a story) Gender / part of speech verb How English differs raconter une histoire , to tell a story . Je raconte une histoire. [18] I am telling a story. Poetry Word Meaning Notes le poème fr poem Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs Masculine despite the final e. Quel beau poème ! [19] What a beautiful poem! la poésie fr poetry Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs Also a single poem in school use. J'adore la poésie. [20] I love poetry. le poète fr poet Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs Used for women too: elle est poète . Il est poète. [21] He is a poet. le vers fr line of verse Gender / part of speech masculine noun How English differs One line, not a stanza: un poème de quatorze vers . In the example, verses means lines: a sonnet has fourteen lines. Le sonnet compte quatorze vers. [22] The sonnet has fourteen verses. la rime fr rhyme Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs rimer , to rhyme . L'oreille n'est pas très satisfaite de cette rime. [23] The ear is not very satisfied with this rhyme. la strophe fr stanza, verse Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs English verse in the sense of a stanza is une strophe . Écrivez un poème de quatre strophes de trois vers. [24] Write a poem with four three-line stanzas. la fable fr fable Gender / part of speech feminine noun How English differs The fables of La Fontaine, read in lesson 7.11. Quelle est la différence entre une fable et un conte de fées ? [25] What's the difference between a fable and a fairytale? la morale fr moral; morality Gender / part of speech fem