Une facette de l’interculturalité en classe de FLE : la littérature entre le patrimoine et l’actualité
A FACET OF INTERCULTURALITY IN THE FFL CLASS: LITERATURE BETWEEN HERITAGE AND ACTUALIT

Summary/Abstract: The literary text has a multiple function in the contemporary teaching of French as a foreign language (FFL). Such an authentic document is important because it helps the student in developing language skills, autonomy in reading and learning, in using different strategies in accessing the text, and enables him to actively use the language he is learning, to get to know the target culture and above all to read in a foreign language for pleasure. Although no longer considered a “sacred text” or exclusively a manifestation of the best possible use of language (Gruca 1995; Riquois 2009) but rather an authentic document in the function of language learning that testifies to the current reading habits and practices of native speakers, the literary text in the teaching of foreign languages preserves the status of a symbol of the target culture defined by a specific spatial, temporal and linguistic framework. The fact that it is part of the cultural heritage gives the literary text a dimension that determines it spatially and temporally, and connects it with the society from which it originates. Literary works thus acquire a dual status: they are artistic embodiments of language but also manifestations of the target culture. The Other is embodied in them; they convey a cultural system and values different from those of the students; they bear witness to the way of life of the native speakers, to their customs, mentality and way of thinking. A literary text is considered an ideal authentic document for discovering the Other and encountering it in foreign language teaching. At the same time universal, understandable to everyone and rooted in the specific culture whose peculiarities it bears witness to, it invites the student to think, to question both himself and his belonging to his culture, as well as his relationship to others in the target culture (Zarate 1986, 2012; Séoud 1997; de Carlo 1998; AbdallahPretceille 2005). As the first significant contact of students with the French language and culture, apart from the teacher, is achieved through textbooks, in this paper we deal with the writers and literary texts represented in the French language textbooks by Serbian and French authors used in secondary schools in Serbia. The selected documents have a direct impact on students’ ideas about the target culture, which they often retain throughout their education and afterwards. As our research has shown, our students’ ideas about France are dominantly marked by learned culture (Galisson 1988) and that which is acquired through education. That is why an analysis of these documents, and especially of the choice of authors and literary texts that enable an encounter and familiarity with alterity, can be significant for an understanding of students’ ideas about the target culture.

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