French Language and Literature
What the exam expects
The French paper combines technical mastery of the language with literary culture. On the language side, a candidate must command grammar (agreement of the past participle, sequence of tenses, concordance des temps), syntax (proposition subordination, propositions circonstancielles), lexicon (synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, paronyms, niveaux de langue), and stylistics (figures of speech: métaphore, métonymie, anaphore, chiasme, oxymore, litote, hyperbole). On the literature side, know the major movements (humanisme, baroque, classicisme, Lumières, romantisme, réalisme, naturalisme, symbolisme, surréalisme, négritude), their aesthetics and representative authors, with particular attention to African and Burkinabè writing (Senghor, Césaire, Damas, Mongo Beti, Sembène Ousmane, Nazi Boni, Norbert Zongo, Bernadette Sanou Dao).
Traps that recur
- Past participle with avoir: agreement only with a preceding direct object ("les lettres qu'il a écrites"), never with the subject.
- Confusing litote (understatement to suggest more) with euphémisme (softening a harsh reality).
- Attributing Cahier d'un retour au pays natal to Senghor instead of Césaire.
- Calling négritude a purely aesthetic movement while ignoring its political and anti-colonial dimension.
- Muddling commentaire composé (thematic, organised reading) with dissertation (thesis-driven argument).
Rule of thumb
For the commentaire composé, build two or three axes, each with a claim, two or three quotations, and a micro-interpretation. Never paraphrase: every quotation must be explained.
Worked example
"Les fleurs qu'elle a cueillies" - agreement is with qu', preceding direct object of cueillir, feminine plural: cueillies. Contrast "Elle a cueilli des fleurs": no preceding object, so no agreement.