French literature

French Literature (Littérature Française[1] , Littérature Francophone[2] ) In Chinese characters, the literature means literary works written in French . It is also a literary that is created in France , Canada , Switzerland , Belgium , and Africa , which speak French .

French is a language that is different from Latin in romance . In medieval Europe, Latin was almost the only octopus, but there has been a movement to write in the local romance, that is, French.

The oldest traces of French literature date back to the 9th century's Hymn to Saint Eulalia . In the 10th and 11th centuries, there were works called hagiography that poetically expressed Christian values, and the current works are La Vie de saint Alexis and La Vie de Saint Léger.

Middle Ages from the 10th to 15th centuries, and the whole medieval literature can be divided into three materials (Matière, Matiere).

This is a classification by the 12th century poet Jean Bodel, and although these three themes are often mixed and there are works that cannot be classified, it is a classification that has as much meaning as the classification of contemporaries.

From the 11th century, the epic poem called chanson de geste marked the beginning of French literature in earnest. The song of Roland (la chanson de Roland), a representative work, is the beginning of 'French material', and continues to be a source of inspiration for various literary traditions even after the Middle Ages.

From the mid-12th century, the era of literature centered on the court began. Accordingly, the values ​​of secular nobility called courtoisie developed, and this culture expanded to the knightly class. From this, court literature was born, combining the unique view of love called amour courtois and the original concept of chivalry . Unlike military poetry, court literature adopts materials from Britain or Rome rather than France. Representative works include Chrétien de Troyes (1135?–1190?)'s novel about the Arthurian legend , and Roman de la rose, a 13th-century poem that sings about court love through an allegory .

During the same period, poetic literature (literature bourgeoise) developed. Here, bourgeois does not mean bourgeois in the modern sense , but rather a person who literally lived in a castle. Therefore, rather than containing courtly and aristocratic values, allegorical novels that satirized medieval society were developed, and the most representative work of French poetic literature is The Fox Story (Roman de la Renart).

In the 14th to 16th centuries, the Renaissance , which started in Italy , spread and France was also influenced by it.

In the 17th century, centralization accelerated with the absolute monarchy , and rationalism and classicism emerged.

In the 18th century, the Enlightenment tended to be considered important.

In the 19th century, the civil revolution is mainly discussed due to the French Revolution . In addition, works based on romanticism , realism , and naturalism appear, while the classic adventure novel genre, centered on Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne, also appears.

In the 20th century , various post-modern considerations such as avant-garde, surrealism , existentialism , and postmodernism are conducted based on the turbulent social situation including the end of the Belle Époque and two world wars .