French Literature Reviews - 2026

Agrégation 2005: LGC, Poets of Love.
Comparative and World Literature

AGRÉGATION IN MODERN LITERATURE 2005
Comparative Literature (new topic) - "Poets of Love"

1) Corpus
OVID, Amores, Classiques en poche, Les Belles Lettres, 2002, or another edition that better captures the rhythms of the text: by A. Daviau and Ph. Heuzé, Rivages/Poches ed., 1997.
PETRARCH, Canzoniere, Classiques Garnier, bilingual, 2004, or compare with the older but reliable translation by Gramont, Poésie/Gallimard, 1983 (reprinted 2001), or those featured in the July 2004 issue of the journal Europe.
SHAKESPEARE, Sonnets, in Tragicomédies II, Poésies, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Complete Works, Robert Laffont, Bouquins, 2002, or another translation, in alexandrines, published by Livre de Poche.
GOETHE, West-Eastern Divan [Le Divan], Poésie/Gallimard, 1984, the only non-bilingual edition on the syllabus—highly regrettable; for Germanists: obtain any German paperback edition (Reclam is the cheapest) to appreciate the metrical and rhyming virtuosity of the original; for everyone: obtain and/or photocopy the bilingual edition of the Divan by Lichtenberger, Aubier-Montaigne ed., 1940 (several reprints)—it contains the best critical apparatus in French, along with the translation of Goethe's major "essays" on his collection.

2) Related Readings
OVID: Ars Amatoria [The Art of Love] (Folio); Amores. Love itineraries of Roman elegists, Picquier ed., 1989.
PETRARCH: DANTE, The Divine Comedy (for instance, the GF bilingual edition); Louise LABÉ and other French "Petrarchan" Renaissance poets, as well as those who opposed the model (Du Bellay).
SHAKESPEARE: Venus and Adonis (in the same volume), and "Commentaries" pp. 521-543; a few famous plays: Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet... (at random and by no means exclusive!).
GOETHE: a few major works: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister, Roman Elegies, Elective Affinities, Theory of Colours (for the symbolism of the Divan); any anthology of Persian poetry.

3) Working with the Texts
(contextualizing, clarifying allusions...)
OVID: history: understand the Augustan period, the "moral order" imposed during it, against which Amores positions itself; understand the shift in cultural figures, from the devoted peasant-soldier to the lover seeking literary glory. For example: Jean-Pierre Néraudeau, Auguste, Belles-Lettres, 1996; any dictionary of mythology for allusions (familiarize yourself with the index at the end of your edition, which clarifies many things); to study the poetic relationship between Amores and "high" genres: Fabre-Serris J. and Deremetz A. (eds.), Elégie et épopée dans la poésie ovidienne (Héroïdes et Amours), UL3 coll., Lille, 1999.
PETRARCH: history: understand the "First Italian Renaissance" (that of the Trecento) and its role in subsequent developments in Europe; look at art books; allusions: mythological dictionary, history textbooks; DOTTI Ugo, Pétrarque, Fayard, 1991: the reference biography; the July-August 2004 issue of the journal Europe contains a recommended feature on the author.
SHAKESPEARE: history: understand the Elizabethan period; MAGUIN J.-M. and A., William Shakespeare, Fayard, 1996, is a wealth of information on the life, context, and work (including a chapter on the Sonnets), highly recommended; the syllabus edition includes an introduction and extensive notes that incorporate previous critical studies; VENDLER Helen, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Harvard University Press, 1997, is recommended for potential "line-by-line" work on the texts (commented on individually).
GOETHE: history: understand the period of the Napoleonic Wars. ANCELET-HUSTACHE Jeanne, Goethe, "Ecrivains de toujours" coll., Seuil, 1955, remains an excellent general introduction to the life and context of the work, better than the "Que sais-je" by P.-H. Bideau (1984). The Divan was on the syllabus for the German Agrégation in 2003, hence a recommended collection of studies: BANDET J.-L. (ed.), Johann Wolfgang Goethe / West-östlicher Divan, Éditions du Temps, 2003. MARACHE Maurice, Le symbole dans la pensée et l'oeuvre de Goethe, Nizet, 1960: for further study, a classic of Goethean scholarship; the various sources of the Divan are listed and classified in the German Reclam edition.

4) General Orientation on the Topic
("poets", "love")
Focusing on love...
BARTHES Roland, Fragments d'un discours amoureux, Seuil, 1977.
CURTIUS Ernst R., La littérature européenne et le Moyen-Age latin [1956], Pocket, 1991.
MARCUSE Herbert, Eros et civilisation, contribution à Freud, Minuit, 1963.
PLATO, Phaedrus, Symposium.
ROUGEMONT Denis de, L'amour et l'Occident [1939], Plon, 1972.
Focusing on poetry...
AGAMBEN Giorgio, Stanze, Rivages poche, 1998.
BATAILLE Georges, L'expérience intérieure, Gallimard, 1943 / 1954.
MAULPOIX Jean-Michel, La poésie comme l'amour : essai sur la relation lyrique, Mercure de France, 1998.
MESCHONNIC Henri, Célébration de la poésie, Verdier, 2001.
PAZ Octavio, L'arc et la lyre, Gallimard, 1965.
RABATÉ Dominique (ed.), Figures du sujet lyrique, PUF, 1996 (articles by Combe and Rabaté).
ROUBAUD Jacques, La fleur inverse. L'art des troubadours, Belles-Lettres, 1994.
RICOEUR Paul, La métaphore vive, Seuil, 1975.

This page outlines the corpus, related readings, contextual methodologies, and general theoretical orientations designated for the 2005 competitive examination syllabus in modern comparative literature. Centered on the broad thematic nexus of Poets of Love, the curriculum brings together canonical texts across diverse linguistic traditions and historical epochs. The selected primary corpus comprises Ovid's Amores, Petrarch's Canzoniere, Shakespeare's Sonnets, and Goethe's West-Eastern Divan. Alongside these central works, the program provides recommendations for complementary readings, historical and biographical studies, scholarly commentaries, and foundational theoretical essays addressing the intersections of poetry and desire.

The prescribed materials encourage candidates to examine the formal, historical, and philosophical dimensions of lyric poetry through various critical angles, ranging from classical elegy and Renaissance humanism to romanticism. Contextual resources direct students toward understanding specific cultural periods such as the Augustan era, the Trecento, the Elizabethan age, and the Napoleonic Wars. Additionally, general theoretical references incorporate classical philosophy, structuralist semiotics, and phenomenological approaches to discourse and subjectivity. Readers interested in competitive academic literature syllabi and structured comparative reading lists may find these bibliographic orientations useful.