GEOFFREY TURNOVSKY Reading Exercises French Literature in the Classroom Abstract Régis Sauder’ s touching 2011 documentary, Nous, Princesses de Clèves , which fol- lows a group of Marseille high school students over the course of a year as they read La Fayette’ s novel while preparing for the Baccalauréat exams, juxtaposes two distinct types of reading: a reading in which the students are able to see themselves in the characters of the novel and a more difficult classroom-based reading that seeks to instill in the students, through conventional pedagogical exercises such as the explication de texte, an apprecia- tion for the literary art and importance of the text. This essay explores the tensions be- tween these two literacies, which become manifest in the film, especially in scenes where the students, who so easily relate to the novel’ s characters, struggle with the more formal analysis. In a second part, inspired by the writings of Priscilla Ferguson, the essay explores the sociological and pedagogical implications of what seems, in the film, the incompati- bility of these distinct appropriations of the text, as it pertains to the students in the doc- umentary and to US-based French programs built on the literary curricula developed by pedagogues such as Gustave Lanson in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Keywords Princesse de Clèves, Gustave Lanson, Régis Sauder, history of reading, undergrad- uate education A scene in Régis Sauder’ s 2011 documentary, Nous, Princesses de Clèves , shows a high school student named Sarah beginning a practice oral explication de texte, undertaken in preparation for her upcoming Bac- calauréat exams. Sarah introduces the author of the passage she is ana- lyzing, La Fontaine, as a “fabuliste du dix-huitième siècle. ” As she forges on hesitatingly, glancing up at the instructor, the latter inter- rupts, asking for clari fication: “ Alors, c’ est un texte du dix-huitième?” “Non, ” Sarah replies, “ l’auteur, ” but confirms the century: “C’ est un fabuliste du dix-huitième siècle. ”“La Fontaine est du dix-huitième siècle, ” the teacher repeats, to which Sarah again says yes, though clearly aware that the rug is about to be pulled out from under her feet. “ Vous me tenez, ” the instructor pushes, laying the trap; “C’ est ferme et défi- nitif. ”“Oui, ” says Sarah yet again, with a resigned smile as she braces for Romanic Review 112:2 september 2021 DOI: 10.1215/00358118-9091117 © 2021 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York 213 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/romanic-review/article-pdf/112/2/213/1264636/213turnovsky.pdf by UNIV OF WA user on 04 January 2022