Interpreting Les Misérables

USEM 1580-007, Fall 2012

Marva Barnett, Department of French; Director & Professor, Teaching Resource Center

In our fast-paced digital world, thinking people still dedicate hours to reading novels, seeing plays, watching movies.  Why?  In this seminar, we’ll explore the multifaceted appeal of literature, theater, and film by plunging into one great novel: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.  What is it about this story that speaks to people across decades and cultural divides?  Why, worldwide, have over 60 million made les Mis the longest-running musical, and what has prompted directors to make 50 film versions of the novel?  Why does it regularly appear in comments, parodies, news today?  How have screen writers, directors, actors, and lyricists interpreted this work, and how will it speak to you?  What changes—and what doesn’t—when a book becomes a musical or a film?  In the end, what is the power of the art of interpretation—both artistic and personal?  We embark on a wide-ranging conversation about why this novel is considered “great” and what “great literature” can do for us.

Our goals: What you can expect to learn in this course that will remain with you:

• You will know . . .
  • more about how literature, theater, and film bring new insights and values into your life
  • how to read with enjoyment and understanding a complex literary work
  • the thematic, literary, historical, philosophical richness of Les Misérables
• You will be able to . . .
  • pursue and explore your ideas while reading, developing your skill in consciously articulating your personal interpretations by, for example:
    • analyzing and summarizing the interpretations of screenwriters, lyricists, directors, and so on
    • comparing and contrasting your interpretations with others’ interpretations
  • relate personally to literary texts
  • ask probing questions that push your thinking further; for instance, you will be able to:
    • take intellectual risks in front of others
    • look critically at your own and others’ understanding and interpretations
    • formulate and test hypotheses about why a text presents certain ideas
• You will find value in
  • interpreting literature, theater, film
  • sharing your ideas about art and life
  • seriously considering others’ ideas about life and art
  • asking good questions
• You will continue to engage with and enjoy serious literature, theater, and film

Helping you accomplish our goals are these activities (Click on the links for details about each):

• In-class discussions driven by your questions and your ideas
• Brief quizzes to help you keep up with reading and viewing Les Misérables
• Forum posts through which you share your thoughts and engage with colleagues during the week
• Reflective explorations of your interpretations of the novel, films, musical—a written journal through which you examine your questions and hypotheses, working toward a coherent understanding of Les Misérables
• A summary project & poster presentation (e.g., essay, digital story, film, song): What does Les Misérables mean to you, and why?

NB: You will write either a Journal entry or Collab Forum post each week, according to whether you are on Team Black or Team Red (teams inspired by the revolutionary students’ Les Mis song “Red and Black”).

Contact information:

• Office hours in Hotel D, 24 East Range (behind Pavilion Garden VI) (Teaching Resource Center).  Generally, M, T, W, F, 11h30-16h30; but please make an appointment to be sure I’ll be in the office.
• E-mail:  marva@virginia.edu / Office phone:  982-2816 (the best place to leave a message). NB: I tend to check my email in the afternoons and will answer your messages as soon as I can after I see them.

Required reading & viewing:

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, unabridged translation by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee, based on the classic C. E. Wilbur trans. New York: Signet Classics, 1987.

Other readings / viewings, as appropriate.  We will determine which films to view and how many in alignment with your interests.  You may connect the novel to film for your project.

Meeting number & date	Possible topics (may change according to our discussions	Readings (from Hugo, Les Misérables, the Fahnestock & MacAfee translation).  NB: Details about optional readings and focal points may be added during the semester. Viewings TBA	Other Assignments
Meeting 1, 8/30	Why read les Misérables?	Read the introduction by L. Fahnestock, pp. v-xiii and Victor Hugo’s Preface (p. xvii) before class. Spoiler alert: if You don’t know the plot and don’t want to know it in advance, skip. p. x, para. 2 (“Very early . . .”)-top of p. xi (“. . . in her behalf.”)   Introductions, personal goals and course goals, Victor Hugo	Team Black    â		Team Red   â
2, 9/6	A just man? A just society?	Les Misérables, Fantine (Part 1): Books 1-3, pp. 1-144.  Optional : pp. 114-19 (I, 3, 1 : « The Year 1817 »), but DO READ the last 2 paragraphs, p. 119. NOTE: Readings are longer at the beginning of the semester, when the novel contains more plot (quicker to read) and less philosophy (slower to read). Due: Questions on our syllabus. Consider the Guiding Questions, for discussion.	Forum post		Journal
3, 9/13	Fantine: Christ freed us? Valjean: In all good conscience?	Fantine (I): Books 4-7, pp. 145-281.	Journal		Forum post
4, 9/20	Chance? Fate? Providence?	Fantine (I): Book 8; Cosette (Part II): Books 1-3, pp. 282-427.	Forum post		Journal
5, 9/27	Power of abuse & power of love	Cosette (II): Books 4-8, pp. 428-573.	Journal		Forum post
6, 10/4	The Paris gamin   Monarchy / Restoration, Empire, or Republic?	Marius (Part III): Books 1-5, pp. 575-698.  Recommended: Skim pp. 608-24 (III, 3, 1-3), following the story of Marius and his grandfather, M. Gillenormand and getting the gist of the political and social trends of the period.	Forum post		Journal
7, 10/11	Idealism in revolution and love	Marius (III): Books 6-8, pp. 699-819.	Journal		Forum post
8, 10/18	The criminal wretched	Idyll of the Rue Plumet and Epic of the Rue Saint-Denis (Part IV): Books 1-4, pp. 821-923. Recommended: Skim pp. 821-54 (IV, 1, 1-5) to get the main points about the history and politics of 1830-32 (the Friends of the A B C go to the barricades in 1832).	Journal: Review your journal and Forum entries to draft ideas about what Les Misérables means to you & begin to organize them. Due as a journal entry for everyone.
9, 10/25	Gavroche & Eponine: How do they survive?	Idyll & Epic (Part IV): Books 5-8, pp. 924-1038. Recommended: When reading pp. 979-1002 (IV, 7) skim to get the gist of what Hugo says about “argot” (slang); but read more carefully his analysis of revolution and progress.	Forum post	Journal
10, 11/1	Despair	Idyll & Epic (IV): Books 9-14, pp. 1039-1147.	Journal	Forum post
11, 11/8	At the barricades	Idyll & Epic (IV): Book 15; Jean Valjean (Part V): Book 1, pp. 1148-1255.	Forum post	Journal
12, 11/15	Through the sewers	Jean Valjean (V): Books 2-5, pp. 1256-1363. Recommended: Skim pp. 1256-75 (V, 2) to get the gist of Hugo’s famous description of the Paris sewer system.  What do you think he is trying to accomplish with this section?	Journal	Forum post
13, 11/28	The moment of truth?	Jean Valjean (V): Books 6-9, pp. 1364-1463.	Forum post	Journal
14, 12/4	Meanings of Les Misérables	Your posters: What does Les Misérables mean to you, and why? Each of you will present a one-minute introduction to, or overview of, your poster, which summarizes your project.  For the first 50 minutes of class, half of you will share your posters with your colleagues.  When viewing the posters, you can move around as you wish, choosing how much time to spend on each poster.  After a five-minute break to rearrange, roles will reverse.  Arrive with your “poster” ready to go!	Prepare your poster (which might be a poster, your digital story, a video, a website).
Mon., 12/10, Noon	Project DUE (our exam date)	Submit your project: What does Les Misérables mean to you, and why? Due by noon in my email box (marva@virginia.edu) or my paper mailbox at Hotel D, East Range (behind Pavilion VI Gardens).

 

The rhythm of our weeks:

The best learning happens when it comes in manageable chunks, over time.  To help you think and learn well, I have spread our activities throughout the week, so that you need not cram your reading or thinking into a tight time frame.  Here’s how the weekly deadlines line up, with Week 2 (9/6) as the example:

• On Thursday evening, Aug. 30, or Friday, August 31: Begin reading the assignment for Week 2. (EVERYONE)
• By Tuesday midnight, Sept. 4:  Having read all or most of the Week 2 reading, you post your Forum comment. (TEAM BLACK)
• By 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 6: Read your colleagues’ Forum posts and note ideas or questions you’d like to pursue in class. (EVERYONE)
• On Thursday, Sept. 6: Attend class, having read the assigned reading for Week 2, using the guiding questions as appropriate, ready to offer your questions and ideas and to discuss those of your classmates. (EVERYONE)
• By midnight Saturday, Sept. 8: Send me your Reflective Journal entry on the Week 2 reading via the Collab Dropbox.  (TEAM RED)

In this way, the Forum should help you prepare for class, and the class discussion should help clarify ideas that you want to explore through your Journal.

NB:  The College students who learn the most and the most deeply study, on average, two hours outside of class for every course credit hour.  So, for a two-credit USEM, you should invest four hours in reading, thinking, writing, discussing outside our class meeting time.  If you take 15 credit hours and use this formula, you are learning for 45 hours per week—a typical work week.

Your grade is based on how well you accomplish these activities in support of our learning goals:

25%     In-class discussions driven by your questions and your ideas

15%     Brief quizzes that help you keep up with reading and viewing Les Misérables, usually

given at the beginning of class. 

20%     Forum posts through which you share your thoughts and engage with colleagues during

            the week

20%     Reflective explorations of your interpretations of the novel, films, musical in a weekly

            written journal

NB:  Your lowest grade on the quizzes, Forum posts, and Reflective journal entry will each be dropped; but none of these assignments can be made up after the due date.

20%     Summary project (due on the exam date) & presentation (due the last class)

(e.g., essay, digital story, film, song):  What does Les Misérables mean to you, and why?

100%

Extra credit:  You may earn up to 2 additional grades to be included in your Forum post grade when you discover an interesting reflection of Les Misérables in today’s society, add it to our Wiki with appropriate summary, and comment cogently on it in our Forum.

Viewing the musical and Les Misérables movies:

These films will, I believe, add the most to your understanding of the novel:

• Les Misérables, directed by Raymond Bernard and starring Harry Baur, 1934 (To be on reserve in Clemons VIDEO .DVD08383 pt.1-3)
• Les Misérables, music by Claude Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer,10^th-annivesary (DVD10104) OR 25^th-anniversary concert version (on order M1500 .M57 2011). (Both to be on reserve in Clemons)
• Les Misérables, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, 1995. An intriguing film inspired by—and reflective of—Hugo’s novel.  “During the Nazi occupation of France, Henri Fortin is a true and simple man whose life parallels that of Jean Valjean, the hero of the novel, Les Misérables.”  In French with English subtitles.  Clemons VIDEO .VHS8684 pt.1-2
• Les Misérables, dir. by R. Boleslawksi, starring Frederic March, 1935. Especially interesting for Charles Laughton’s portrayal of Inspector Javert.  Clemons VIDEO .VHS3923

For those who understand French, I would add this one:

• Les Misérables, dir. by Jean-Paul Le Chanois, starring Jean Gabin, 1957.  Clemons VIDEO .DVD04526 pt.1-2.

Unfortunately, the Bille August film starring Liam Neeson (1998) and the Josée Dayan film starring Gérard Depardieu (2000) (in French) both so significantly alter Hugo’s plot and characters that they are detrimental to understanding the novel.  The Dayan film does, however, recreate well the historical period of the early 1830s in its settings and costumes.

The U.Va. Community of Trust and Honor System

The U.Va. Honor System helps us maintain and develop the community of trust that we need in order to share our ideas openly and learn well together.  By joining this course, you are agreeing to do your work honorably, giving credit for ideas you received from others.  This includes acknowledging in your Journal entries and Forum posts when you are building on ideas that you first heard from others in the course.  It is easy to do this.  For instance, you can build the acknowledgement into your sentence:  “In thinking over Mary’s comment that Valjean’s opinion of himself owes much to how society has treated him, I . . . .”  Or you can use a parenthetical reference:  “I would like to take issue with the perspective that Valjean’s opinion of himself owes much to how society has treated him (Mary’s idea) . . . .” 

As the Honor Committee states, U.Va. students are responsible for understanding academic fraud.  If you have not already studied their explanation, please do so at http://www.virginia.edu/honor/fraud.html.  If you have any questions about what sort of work and/or citation constitutes honorable work, do not hesitate to ask me.