Teaching the Cult of Literature in the French Third Republic [Hardcover]

This book explores literature in its role as a sacred text within the confines of 19th-century French primary and secondary education, helping the school to take over the role of spiritual authority from the Catholic Church.Preface * Introduction: Literature vs. Scripture * Part I: Origins: The Revolution and the Republican Cult of Literature * The Taboo against Literature in the School of the Republic * Beyond Condorcet: The Revolutionary Attack on Literature * Part II: Language and Literature in Primary Education * The Evangelism of National Education * The Fathers of Pedagogical Science, Gabriel Compayr? and Ferdinand Buisson * Suppression and Expression of Literature in Primary Education: The Evolution of the Manuel de fran?ais * The Theme of Assimilation in Primary School Textbooks * Part III: Literature in Secondary Education: The Question of Latin, the Crisis of French * Latin as Symbol for the Mysteries of French * Against Literature: The Question of Latin * For Literature: the Crisis of French * Part IV: Third Republic Literary Pedagogy in Modern French Criticism * The Sociological Critique of Literary Pedagogy * National and Literary French: the Work of Ren?e Balibar * To Teach Nothing But Literature: Third Republic Literary Pedagogy and la Nouvelle Critique * Conclusion: The Spirituality of French Literature * Bibliography

Teaching the Cult of Literature is a highly successful undertaking, one full of rich cultural insights. Professor Guiney's principal objective is to demonstrate the construction and transmission of a specific literary pedagogy during the Third Republic in France. He sheds light on the key issue of nation building and French cultural identity, as well as the role of canon formation during this period. In his analysis of the pedagogy underlying the teaching at both the primary and secondary levels of the curriculum, he shows quite well this pedagogy constituted an urgent national mission and to what extent evangelism was inhelSl