Great Speeches in French Political Rhetoric



This course will study a variety of modern political speeches from the French Revolution to the present time. It offers a panorama of the evolution of French political rhetoric according to its historical, political, intellectual, and religious context. Students will have the opportunity to become familiar with political literature and will work on the art of rhetoric and political discourse in a concrete and lively manner, notably through enrichment of vocabulary, knowledge of the diversity of language styles, analysis of argumentation, and discursive strategies. Students of this course will have the opportunity to write by themselves a political speech which will be performed in a special event : the 'Soirée de l'Eloquence politique' (end of the Summer School, in the Warner Hemicycle). For this summer (2013), the 'Soirée' will be devoted to the Paris Commune of 1871.



Required book: Jean-Jacques Becker, Gilles Candar, Histoire des gauches en France, volume 1, « L’héritage du XIXe siècle », La Découverte, 2004, ISBN 2-7071-3865-7