C2 DALF C2 Small batches

C2 French literature course

C2 is where we read French literature together, from La Fontaine and Racine to Leïla Slimani and Marie NDiaye. Each month pairs a period or movement with the books that define it.

Duration6 months (2 × 3)
Each class3 hrs, incl. 15-min break
PlatformGoogle Meet
Fee₹25,800 per part₹51,600 for both parts

Fees are payable in advance and are non-refundable.

Course structure

Month-by-month syllabus

These are the grammar topics for each month. On top of them, you speak in every class, and I evaluate your speaking, writing, reading and listening continuously.

  • Part 13 months · ₹25,800

    C2.1

    • Month 1
      • Introduction to literary theory: genres, periodization and the main movements in French literature.
      • Narratology: narrator, focalization and time in the novel.
      • The seventeenth-century novel and the moralists: Madame de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves; La Fontaine, Fables (selected).
      • Tragedy and the classical ideal: Corneille, Le Cid.
      • Early feminist voices: Madeleine de Scudéry, Clélie (extracts); Madame de Sévigné, Lettres (selected).
    • Month 2
      • Marivaux, Les Fausses Confidences; Diderot, Jacques le fataliste; Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro.
      • Women and the Enlightenment: Madame de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne; Madame de Staël, Corinne ou l'Italie (extracts).
      • Romanticism and ambition in the novel: Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir.
      • Modern poetry: Verlaine, Poèmes saturniens (selected); Apollinaire, Alcools (selected).
      • Surrealism and the avant-garde: Breton, Nadja.
    • Month 3
      • Theatre of the absurd: Beckett, En attendant Godot; Ionesco, La Cantatrice chauve.
      • The New Novel: Robbe-Grillet, La Jalousie.
      • French feminist thought and writing: Hélène Cixous, Le Rire de la Méduse; Monique Wittig, Les Guérillères.
      • Québécois literature: Michel Tremblay, Les Belles-sœurs; Anne Hébert, Kamouraska.
      • Women's voices in Francophone Africa: Mariama Bâ, Une si longue lettre.
      • History and the historical novel: Marguerite Yourcenar, Mémoires d'Hadrien.
  • Part 23 months · ₹25,800

    C2.2

    • Month 4
      • Medieval and Renaissance voices: Rabelais, Gargantua; Du Bellay, La Défense et illustration de la langue française.
      • Classical theatre: Molière, Le Misanthrope; Racine, Phèdre.
      • Comedy and tragedy on stage: structure, character and performance.
      • Literary commentary: oral presentation of a text (« l'explication de texte »).
    • Month 5
      • Romanticism and the poetic voice: Hugo, Les Contemplations (selected poems); Rimbaud, Illuminations (extracts).
      • Realism and naturalism: Balzac, Le Père Goriot; Zola, Germinal (extracts).
      • Women's writing and emancipation: George Sand, Indiana; Colette, La Vagabonde.
      • Memory and time: Proust, Du côté de chez Swann (extracts).
    • Month 6
      • Twentieth-century experiments: Queneau, Exercices de style; Nathalie Sarraute, Tropismes.
      • Postcolonial and Francophone voices: Assia Djebar, L'Amour, la fuite; Maryse Condé, Moi, Tituba sorcière….
      • Contemporary women's writing: Leïla Slimani, Chanson douce; Delphine de Vigan, Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit.
      • Autofiction and the body: Virginie Despentes, King Kong Théorie; Marie NDiaye, Trois femmes puissantes.
      • Critical writing: the research essay, with sustained argument and secondary sources.
      • Voice and style: a consolidated view across the corpus.
What you can do at the end

C2 lets you understand virtually everything you hear or read, summarise it coherently, and express fine shades of meaning precisely.

Every class

How my online French classes work

  • Every class is live on Google Meet. Nothing is pre-recorded.

  • I keep batches small: enough people to hold a real conversation, and few enough that I hear each of you speak in every class.

  • A section of each class recording goes to students after every class, for revision.

  • Evaluation is continuous. You speak in every class and complete weekly listening, reading and writing tasks, so we both know where you stand long before exam day.

Is this course right for you?

This course is a good fit if

  • You have finished C1.

  • You want to read and discuss French literature in the original, from the seventeenth century to today.

Another option may suit you better if

  • You want one-to-one classes. I teach group batches only.

  • You want a guaranteed pass. Success in an exam depends most on attending class regularly, doing your homework and working on my feedback. Most students who do this pass with flying colours, but students learn differently and at different rates, so I don't guarantee a result. It takes equal effort from you and from me.

  • You want fluency in thirty days. Each CEFR level takes a three-month course.

  • You want recorded lessons to watch on your own schedule. Classes are live, and the short recording I send afterwards is for revision.

Other levels

Not the right level?