This course will be held in Hebrew and will be based upon recent Hebrew translations of the masterpieces of French Literature from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution (1789). The works will be analysed while focusing on their historical, ideological and social context.

The development of the different genres, thematics and styles will be presented through the significant stages in French culture.

For the Middle Ages : The Song of Roland, the poems of the troubadours, The Novel of Renard, Aucassin and Nicolette, Abélard and Heloise’s letters, Marie de France’s Lais.

For the XIVth and XVth centuries : Charles d’Orléans’s poems, François Villon’s poems, Christine de Pisan’s City of the Ladies.

For the Renaissance period : Marot’s poems, Rabelais’s novels, Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, the poems of the Pleiade (Ronsard and Du Bellay), Agrippa d’Aubigné’s Tragiques.

For the XVIIth century : Madame de La Fayette’s Princess of Cleves, Corneille’s El Cid, Racine, Phèdre; Molière, The Precieuses Ridicules, La Fontaine's Fables, Descartes, The introduction to the Method, and Pascal’s Pensées .

For the XVIIIth century : C. de Laclos, The Dangerous Liaisons, J.-J. Rousseau, Confessions, Montesquieu, The Persian Letters, Voltaire, Zadig and articles from the Encyclopedia by Diderot and d’Alembert.

Intermediary exam : 15%

Final exam : 85%