France is proud of its literature. French intellectuals have had a great experience on French history. In present day France, you'll find many private societies that are devoted to individual authors. A study of the friend literature will let you understand the people of France better.
Celtic and Frankish have heavily influenced the French language. The literature that was written in medieval French is amongst the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe. French language was one of the key sources of literary themes in the Middle Ages across the continent.
In the 14th century, vernacular literature eclipsed the European prominence of French literature. In the 16th century, there was a phase of evolution in French literature. In the 17th century, French literature was the most dominating one among other European languages.
Various literary developments that took place in France in the 19th and 20th centuries have influenced modern world literature immensely. A strong influence of French literature on symbolism, naturalism, the surrealism, existentialism, the "roman fleuves" of Balzac, Zola and Proust has been seen.
French literature slowly started evolving when, writers began using the dialects that had evolved from Latin. This Latin language was spoken in the parts of the Roman Empire that would later become France.
French poetry revolved around Parnassian, Romanticism, Symbolism (arts) and Surrealism. During the middle ages, Chretien de Troyes was a famous poet of France. He was the author of Erec, Lancelot and Perceval. During the 16th century, Francois Rabelais wrote Pantagruel and Gargantua. Duting the 17th century Madame de Lafayette was very famous. During the 18th century, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot were popular authors. 19th century saw many talented authors like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Stendhal, Honore de Balzac, Jules Verne, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Laupassant and Emile Zola. In the 20th century, Gaston Leroux, Andre Gide, Marcel Proust, Andre Breton, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Colette and Albert Camus are some famous French authors from 20th century.
France has been home to many talented poets like Francois Villon, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, La Fontaine, Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stephane Mallarme.
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