Exploring the Stylistic Content of Exercices de style

Abstract

Integrating literature across all levels of the foreign language curricu lum is a readily accepted curricular strategy; however, detemiining best practices in using literature to develop students' linguistic and literary competence remains an important area of current research. One way to integrate literature across the curriculum and provide students with ex plicit linguistic support to facilitate comprehension of various written gen res is through the close study of the stylistic features of a literary text (Swaffar, Template; Byrnes; Maxim). Moreover, because the study of stylistic features plays a role in both language and literature courses, it is one way to remedy the well-documented bifurcation of these two areas of foreign language study (Berg and Martin-Berg). From a language perspec tive, stylistic study focuses on the linguistic usage of grammatical and lexi cal features in context; from a literature perspective, stylistic study uncover patterns of expression that lend a work its meaning and structure. In addition to bridging the traditional language-literature divide, examin ing the stylistic features of a text can promote spiraling, the simultaneous development of content knowledge and language competence, and thus improve learners' skills in literary analysis, reading, and writing. Indeed, Eli Hinkel claims that an approach to grammar (or stylistic features) that includes the analysis of authentic texts and the study of second language writing conventions helps to establish a direct connection between con textualized instruction and the production of L2 writing and, hence, the concurrent development of both L2 fluency and accuracy (185). The purpose of this article is to present an instructional unit for advanced level French instruction that espouses these ideas by focusing on the lin guistic features of a literary text to develop students' skills in literary analysis, stylistic analysis, reading, and writing. Excerpts from Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style serve as the literary content for the activities presented herein. The specific goals of the instructional unit are to famil iarize students with Queneau and the OuLiPo (the Ouvroir de Literature Potentiel or 'Workshop of Potential Literature') literary movement; to il lustrate that stylistic features may be the primary object and content of a literary work; to critically analyze and compare the stylistic features of

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