Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Rhetoric is the multi-secular discipline that deals with the techniques of argumentative discourse and, more generally, with the formal processes (enunciative, figurative, etc.) that make a text effective with a particular audience. This is a discipline with which students of Romance Studies, and more generally of Philosophy and Humanities, are not very familiar during their undergraduate years. Semiotics is present from the beginning of the Romanist's curriculum, but it is associated with linguistics. This course is an opportunity to situate it in a different order of problems.
After an introduction to the history and current status of rhetoric and semiology in the area of Humanities, , the course will focus on a specific problematic. This year, the course will focus on the art of editing. This cinematographic technique will be understood here in a very broad sense, as the set of operations involved in selecting, extracting and juxtaposing heterogeneous elements, integrated into a new textual unit. These phenomena touch on very ancient issues, such as dispositio (the development of a discourse plan in ancient rhetoric), or more recent ones, such as texts generated by artificial intelligence, or internet memes. They concern not only the strictly verbal aspects of discourse, but also its visual and, more broadly, media, material and interactional dimensions.This thematic part of the course will be based on a list of compulsory readings, which will be presented in class.
As a preparation to the final examination, and on request from the students, the last session of the course will be dedicated to the topic of verbal interactions.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
By the end of the course, students will be able to :
- know the main historical and conceptual steps of the development of rhetoric and semiology among Humanities and literary studies;
- know and contextualize the main linguistic, semiotic and rhetoric theories of interdiscursivity;
- read and discuss a hard theoretical piece of work;
- produce an original montage and provide a description of it..
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Students should have studied linguistics or semiotics in some form, prior to taking this course. The instructor will frequently refer to aspects of teaching points in semiotics or linguistics that he articulated during the first cycle.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The course will at first consist in a series of lectures, and then the instructor will make assignments to students for seminar-type presentations.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face only.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- MyULiège
Further information:
Work in progress.
Provisional and indicative bibliography
- Georges Didi-Huberman, "La guerre à l'intérieur ", dans La Fabrique des émotions disjointes. Faits d'affects, 2, Paris, Minuit, 2024, p. 67-100 .
- Maud Hagelstein & Jérémy Hamers, "Montage et résistance du réel chez S. Kracauer: Photographie, cinéma, texte", Bulletin d'Analyse Phénoménologique, n° 12, 2016 (4) (URL : https://hdl.handle.net/2268/168809)
- Dominique Maingueneau, Les mots sur les choses. Les énoncés adhérents, Louvain-la-Neuve, Academia, coll. "Extensions sémiotiques", 2025.
- Albin Wagener, Mémologie : théorie postdigitale des mèmes, Grenoble, UGA Éditions, 2022.
- Jean-Michel Espitallier, Tueurs, Paris, Éditions inculte, 2022.
- Sandra Lucbert, Personne ne sort les fusils, Paris, Seuil, "Points", 2021.
- Sandra Lucbert, Défaire voir. Littérature et politique, Paris, Éditions Amsterdam, 2024.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
- Either a theoretical discussion
On one of the compulsory reading strands.
Work in groups of 2 to 4 students.
Oral presentation to the course, approx. 60 min. long, consisting of a synthesis, illustration with examples, further reading and critical discussion.
A written summary (max. 20,000 characters) is submitted to the teacher (by e-mail: Francois.Provenzano@uliege.be) one week after the presentation (taking into account any comments and discussions that may have taken place during the session); after correction, it is circulated to other students.
Registration required between 20/2 and 5/3 (on the notice board in Fr. Provenzano's office).
- Either a practical work
Creation of an original montage device using elements freely taken from an area corresponding to the city of Liège. The number of elements assembled will be between 20 and 40. The assembled elements can be of any semiotic nature (text, image, material). The montage shall not include any personal additions. It shall be accompanied by a short text (1 to 2 pages) describing the device and answering the following questions: Which semiotic systems are involved in the montage? What concrete operations does the montage perform on these systems? What critical effects or other communicational issues are involved in the montage?
Individual work, or in groups of max. 3 students.
Opportunity to discuss work in progress.
Submission of work to the teacher 10 days before the exam.
If the student uses artificial intelligence, he or she must provide detailed information about their use of AI in a dedicated section: tool used, prompt, type of assistance requested (rewording, summarising, analysis, brainstorming, linguistic correction, etc.), results obtained, critical assessment of these results, sections of the work concerned.
Exam
- two questions on the ex-cathedra lessons
- one question on the discussion presented by the students on the mandatory readings
- discussion of the practical work
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The course will take place on Fridays, 2nd Term, from 3 to 5 PM, classroom A2/4/12.
Resumption : Friday, February 6, 2026.
Students who are interested in this course can contact the teacher by September 2025 to ask their questions.
Contacts
François PROVENZANO, Professor
Département de Langues et littératures françaises et romanes
Service de Sciences du langage et rhétorique
Place Cockerill, 3-5, bât. A2, 4000 Liège.
Tél. 04 366 56 45
Mail : Francois.Provenzano@uliege.be
Surgery hours: by appointment, Wednesdays, from 9.30 to 11, office A2/4/4
Secretary
Ariane Nusgens : 04 366 56 50