What Modern Day Authors Can Learn From French Literature

French writers throughout the ages have practiced a very introspective kind of writing. They have provided us with stunning insights into the complexity of our human nature, and they have excelled in analyzing the permutations and combinations which take place when individuals form relationships. I sensed this as an undergraduate. My impression was confirmed when I did my Ph.D. at Yale in the literature of France and decided to concentrate on the Classical Period, i.e., the 17th century.

The great writers of that time like Molière, Racine and La Fontaine made statements about the way people interact with one another which are as meaningful for us living in the 21st century as they were for their contemporaries over three hundred years ago. In fact, they combined depth of perception with elegance of expression to such an extent that they became an artistic gold standard for me. I eventually moved on to many other research areas, but the lessons of truth and artistic beauty they taught me have remained with me to this day.

The characters in my novels have been profoundly influenced by these 17th century masters. For one thing, I try to incorporate crisis, specifically, marital crisis. Secondly, I probe into the hidden, often unconfessable motives of my main characters. Their emotional clashes move the plot forward. Thirdly, as the great Franco-Swiss writer, M. Michel Goeldlin, was kind enough to observe, I have striven to tell my stories in a pure, sober style, despite the more than occasional use of coarse language.

Leonard Rosmarin is Professor Emeritus of French literature and former Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Brock University in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. He received his Doctorate from Yale University where he began his teaching career in 1964, then was appointed Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University, also in Connecticut.

Leonard has become a novelist rather late in life, at the ripe old age of 70 when he wrote his first fiction novel, Getting Enough.

You can visit Leonard Rosmarin at http://www.LeonardRosmarin.com

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