Language and Option Courses in FRENCH 2012-13

For details of option courses, click on the title to read the course specification document

First Year FR1001 Pratique de l’écrit: analyser et argumenter FR1002 Pratique de l’oral : La France contemporaine à travers son cinéma FR1004 Translating from and into French FR1104 Perspectives on Modern France: Crisis, Nation, Identity FR1105 The Visual Image in French Culture and Society FR1110 Introduction to French Literature: A Taster Course FR1107 Language, Communication and Society FR1111 Introduction to French Literature: Critical Skills

Second Year FR2001 Pratique de l’écrit: analyser et argumenter FR2002 Pratique de l’oral : La France contemporaine à travers son cinéma FR2004 Translating from and into French CORE FOR SINGLE AND MAJOR FR2102 Writing Romance and Desire FR2104 Culture and Ideology: La France et la Francophonie FR2105 Stage and Screen in France FR2106 Cinema in France

Final Year FR3001 Pratique de l’écrit: communiquer et convaincre

FR3002 Pratique de l’oral: réflexions et débats FR3003 Advanced Translating Skills FR3102 Arthurian Romance: Chrétien de Troyes FR3108 Repression and Rebellion: The Father and the Father’s Law FR3109 Gender and Transgression in Early-Modern French Literature FR3111 Fictions of History: Narrative, Film and Event in Early Modern France FR3112 Image, Identity and Consumer Culture in Post-war Fiction and Film FR3113 Text and Image in France: from Cubism to the Present FR3114 Ethics and Violence: Murder, Suicide and Genocide in Literature and Film FR3115 Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu FR3117 The Passion of Place: Desire and Identity in Modern Paris FR3120 Wanton Women: artists and writers of the French avant-garde FR3121 Montaigne Then and Now FR3119 Dissertation

The information contained in this course outlines is correct at the time of publication, but may be subject to change as part of the School’s policy of continuous improvement and development. Every effort will be made to notify you of any such changes.

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Code: Course Value: Half Unit Status: Compulsory FR1001 Title: Written French: expliquer, résumer et rédiger Availability: Annual Prerequisites: Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff Cezara Bobeica, Dr Joseph Harris, Elise Pampanay, Dr Hannah Thompson, Léa Vuong The aims of the course are: Aims: • To develop the analytical skills required in the understanding of written material;

• To promote familiarity with the vocabulary and constructions of French as used in

formal written discourse; • To extend the ability to write accurately and concisely; • To revise basic points of French grammar in context and develop command of grammatical terminology.

After completion of this course, the recommended reading and the course work Learning assignments, students will have developed: Outcomes: • Understanding of specific methodology in Written French

• Command of basic grammar knowledge in context

• Ability to work on varied authentic material

• A wider and specific vocabulary in formal French

The course content will be threefold: Course 1. Seminars on a weekly basis, organised as follows: Content: • Stylistic analysis of expressions taken from authentic texts. • The techniques of the Résumé • Introduction to the French essay 2. A grammar programme • the noun and adjective, function and value in the sentence • the verb, its function and value in the sentence • past participle, its construction and function in the sentence • past participle etc. continued • past tenses in French, value, function and construction • past tenses etc. continued • the subjunctive mood • the subjunctive mood continued • the conditional, its function and construction • mock examination in lecture theatre 3. A series of compulsory grammar tests on Moodle

Teaching & Teaching will be in seminars and lectures and conducted largely in French. Learning Learning methods will be developed through practical exercises done in seminars as well as in Methods lectures. Students will be given regular course work enabling them to put into practice the theoretical content of seminars and lectures. Bescherelle, Complete Guide to Conjugating 12000 French Verbs, English Edition, Hatier, Key Paris, latest edition Bibliography: French Grammar and Usage, R. Hawkins, M.N. Lamy and R. Towel (Arnold, latest edition)

Practising French Grammar, R. Hawkins, M.N. Lamy and R. Towel (Arnold, latest edition)

Charnet C et al, Rédiger un résumé, un compte-rendu, une synthèse, Hachette, Paris, 1997 In-course Coursework Feedback:

Assessment: Exam 80% Coursework 20% (5 assignments including a class test done in class) Deadlines: will be indicated to students at their first seminar.

FR1002 Course Value: Half Unit Status: Compulsory

PRATIQUE DE L’ORAL: LA FRANCE A TRAVERS SES Title: Availability: Terms 1 and 2 MEDIAS Prerequisites: Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff Cezara Bobeica, Elise Pampanay, Léa Vuong To develop students’ skills in listening, comprehension, expression and presentation through Aims: the medium of French.

By the end of this course, students should: • demonstrate the listening and comprehension skills required for the understanding of spoken French (live and/or recorded) • demonstrate their ability to conduct, with an increased measure of confidence and accuracy, a structured and focused discussion in the TL After completion of this course, the recommended reading and the course work Learning assignments, students will have developed: Outcomes: • Understanding of specific methodology in Written French

• Command of basic grammar knowledge in context

• Ability to work on varied authentic material

• A wider and specific vocabulary in formal French

The course is based on a variety of audio-visual materials as well as texts. The topics studied Course Content: vary from year to year and are linked to French current affairs, media, cultural issues in French and other Francophone countries. A film is studied in its entirety.

Teaching & Students are assigned to a small group meeting weekly and the course is conducted in French Learning by French native speakers. Classes are interactive and include student presentations, debates Methods and discussions.

See material on Moodle. Key Bibliography:

In-course Periodic coursework assessment Feedback:

Assessment: Exam: 80% Coursework: 20% Deadlines: as published on notice boards

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Core for single and Code: FR1004 Course value Status Half Unit major French Title: Pratique du français: du texte à l’oral Availability: Annual Prerequisites: None Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff Dr Marie Landick, Dr Emily Salines

The course aims to lead students to: Aims: • develop and demonstrate skills in reading, writing, understanding and speaking French; • develop skills in both oral and written presentation of a variety of printed or electronic material, principally of a journalistic nature; • develop analytical skills as applied to French written in frozen, formal and consultative registers. A particular feature of this course is that it aims to place responsibility for the learning experience largely in the hands of the students.

• recognise the relationship between lexis and register; Learning • understand, recognise and use articulateurs logiques and termes de reprise ; Outcomes: • highlight and re-use new grammatical structures and vocabulary; • synthesise and/or translate from TL to SL and vice-versa; • use and manipulate material to elicit appropriate responses from their fellow-students; • recognise the potential of written material as a linguistic teaching and learning resource; • present material orally or in writing with an awareness of its impact on other course- members.

Course The course will be based on written material, selected principally from the French press Content: (newspapers, magazines, specialist journals, web-based material, etc.), initially by the course- leader but thereafter by the students themselves in consultation with the course-tutor. Students will work with this material in some or all of the following ways: • Select and copy text for distribution; • Highlight elements which are of linguistic importance and likely to be of interest to the group; • Provide explanations or comments on such elements; • Create exercises based on features of the article, for example questions to check comprehension, grammatical exercises, translation exercises and exercises requiring summary skills; • Jumbling parts of the passages so that other members of the group can re-order them to restore the logical development of the text; Rewrite parts of the article in a different form (e.g. a different register or for a different purpose). Teaching & The course will take the form of a weekly seminar, conducted mainly in French. After an Learning introductory period, seminar leadership will be assigned, either to individuals or to groups of Methods two or three students. This will require students to select, prepare and present material in the ways outlined above (Course content). Other members of the group will be required to respond to the presentation either orally or in the form of written exercises. Key For reference Bibliography: Aplin, Richard, A Dictionary of Contemporary France (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993) Albert, Pierre, La Presse Que sais-je? (Presses Universitaires de France, 1996) Hughes, Alex & Reader, Keith Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture (Routledge, 1998)

Preparatory work for presentations will involve selecting, reading, analysing, highlighting features of the text, devising explanations and comments and creating exercises based on In-course the text. Students (or groups) will be given a detailed assessment of their performance in Feedback: these areas. Other members of the group will be required to complete a variety of exercises in class and between seminars. Whilst compulsory, assessment of such exercises will be formative rather than summative. Feedback will be delivered both orally and in writing. Assessment: Coursework: 100% divided as follows: Seminar presentation: 50% Press portfolio of 3 written presentations: 50% (Group assessment is only permitted for the seminar presentation. Portfolios are personal and not collaborative.) Deadlines: as published on notice boards

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With effect from 2012 Department/School: Modern languages Academic Session: -13 Course Value: Introduction to French Literature: A Taster (UG courses = unit value, Course Title: 0.5 Course PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: Course Code: FR1110 (Please contact Data R120 Management for advice) BA singl e, major and Availability: Status: joint (Please state which teaching Term 1 and 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, hono terms) Compulsory, Optional) urs degr ees in Fren ch Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Professor Eric Robertson (term 1); Dr Timothy Chesters (Term 2) Course Staff: Professor Eric Robertson, Dr Joe Harris, Professor Ruth Harvey, Dr Timothy Chesters

Aims: The aims of this course are: • to provide a broad overview of the authors, texts, and cultural movements that have shaped the literary history of France and the francophone world from the Middle Ages to the present day • to provide an opportunity to sample a range of literary styles, themes, and devices drawn from over eight centuries of French and francophone writing

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students should be able to: • place the best-known French and francophone authors in their broad historical and cultural context • demonstrate basic familiarity with the meaning, advantages and weaknesses of traditional literary-historical terminology (e.g. ‘Renaissance’, ‘Romanticism’, ‘Realism’, ‘Existentialism’, etc.) • identify those features of a given literary text that are broadly characteristic and (if appropriate) uncharacteristic of its period • demonstrate an increased ability to undertake independent reading and research • demonstrate an increased ability to frame and organise an argument in correct English of an appropriate academic register

Course Content: This course offers an introductory overview of French and francophone literature from the Middle Ages to the present day. Delivered by the appropriate specialist in the School of Modern Languages, each lecture will offer a taste of the literature of a particular period, along with a discussion of its major themes, distinguishing stylistic features, and of the intellectual, social, and historical background against which it appeared. Major authors (and some minor ones) will feature in the course. Terms that often confuse or put off students new to literature (such as ‘Renaissance’, ‘Romanticism, ‘Realism’, or ‘Existentialism’) will be explained and briefly contextualised. By the end of the course, students should possess a basic map of all French and francophone literature, and feel able to approach their future literary studies with confidence.

Teaching & Learning Methods: The course content will be delivered through lectures and, every five weeks, smaller group seminars; in conjunction with set and recommended primary reading, students will work through relevant sections of the course textbook (Kay, Cave and Bowie: see below).

Details of teaching resources Chronologies; excerpts from primary texts; excerpts from critical material; links to on Moodle: video clips and websites; lecture handouts and PowerPoint slides.

Key Bibliography: Textbook:

S. Kay, T. Cave, and M. Bowie, A Short History of French Literature (Oxford: OUP, 2006) [course textbook – purchase obligatory]

Set primary texts [purchase obligatory, cheap paperbacks available in French & translation] Works to be studied typically include FOUR of the following sample -

La Chastelaine de Vergy Voltaire, Zadig Pierre Corneille, Le Cid Gustave Flaubert, 'Un coeur simple' Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné Albert Camus, selected stories from L'Exil et le royaume Simone de Beauvoir 'La femme rompue'

Recommended background: J. Lyons, French Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 2010) [highly recommended, cheap and accessible]

Formative Assessment & The Moodle Quizzes and Essay will enable tutors and students to evaluate student Feedback: progress throughout the course.

Examination: 60% Essays (to be handed in beginning and end of Term 2): 30% Moodle Quiz (to follow each block): 10%

Summative Assessment: Exam (60 %) (2h10 mins)

Coursework (40 %) Essay one: 10% Essay two: 20% (1,200 – 1,500 words each) Moodle multiple choice tests completed at end of each block: 10%

Deadlines: Deadlines will be printed in the coursebook and indicated on Moodle.

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With effect from 2012 Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: -13 Introduction to French Literature: Critical Course Value: Course Title: 0.5 Skills (UG courses = unit value, PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: Course Code: FR1111 (Please contact Data R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which teaching Terms 1 and 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Core terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Professor John O’Brien Course Staff: Dr Timothy Chesters, Dr Ruth Cruickshank, Professor John O’Brien, Dr Hannah Thompson

Aims: The aims of this course are as follows: • To enable students to read and understand a short French literary text with confidence. • To introduce students to the formal elements of French literary prose, poetry, and drama (e.g. narrative voice, versification, plot construction). • To familiarize students with some of the basic rhetorical tropes and devices common in French literary works (e.g. metaphor, simile, metonymy, prosopopeia, irony, style indirect libre, etc.) • To introduce basic techniques in writing a literary commentary.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students should be able to: • recognize and describe the salient formal features of a short French literary text which they have studied in detail (e.g. narrative voice, versification, plot construction). • recognize and describe the salient formal elements of an unseen short French literary text. • recognize and discuss the significance of some of the basic rhetorical tropes and devices common in French literary works (e.g. metaphor, simile, metonymy, prosopopoeia, irony, style indirect libre, etc.) • demonstrate an increased ability to undertake independent reading and research • demonstrate an increased ability to frame and organise an argument in correct English of an appropriate academic register

Course Content: How does French literature differ from other uses of the French language? How do writers of French prose, poetry, and drama, achieve their intellectual and emotional impact on readers? The aim of this course is to introduce you to the basic formal, stylistic and rhetorical elements of French literature. You may have heard of some of these (e.g. metaphor, simile, symbol, irony), while others may be unfamiliar (e.g. focalization, the alexandrine, style indirect libre, the unity of action). The course achieves its aim in two ways. First, you will undertake a detailed study of three literary texts – one work of prose, another of poetry, and a third dramatic work. Each has been selected because it exemplifies some of the more prominent formal features of French literature throughout the ages. Second, and alongside this detailed study of your set texts, you will encounter a wide variety of other literary devices through the study of extracts from some of the greatest French writers. The course content will be delivered in alternating lectures and seminars, so there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss the skills you have learned with your tutor and peers. On completing ‘Introduction to French Literature: Critical Skills’, you will be a more confident reader of French texts, able to recognise and discuss the impact of some of the stylistic and rhetorical devices commonly found in French literary writing. The course does not assume any prior familiarity with French literary texts, nor with the history of French literature (an introduction to which is available in its sister course – ‘Introduction to French Literature: A Taster Course’).

Teaching & Learning Methods: 20 hrs alternating lectures/seminars.

Details of teaching resources The Course Booklet will be available on Moodle. Tutor-moderated discussion on on Moodle: short texts will also be available.

Key Bibliography: Works to be studied typically include THREE of the following sample -

C. Baudelaire, ‘Spleen et Idéal’ from Les Fleurs du Mal A. Camus, L’Étranger

Molière, L’École des femmes Racine, Andromaque J. Racine, Phèdre E. Zola, Thérèse Raquin

Formative Assessment & Moderated discussion on Moodle. Feedback:

Summative Assessment: Exam (60%) 2 hours and 15 minutes, composed of two commentaries from a choice of three

Coursework (40%) Commentary = 10% 1200-1500 words Commentary 2 = 20%1200-1500 words Moodle test = 10%

Deadlines: Deadlines will be printed in the coursebook and indicated on Moodle.

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Perspectives on Modern France: Course Value: Course Title: 0.5 Crisis, Nation, Identity Code: FR1104 JACS R130 Availability: Status: (Please state which T1 and T2 Optional

teaching terms) Pre-requisites: n/a Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Prof. James Williams Course Staff: Prof James Williams, Prof Eric Robertson, Dr. Ruth Cruickshank, Ms. Albertine Fox

The aims of this course are to allow students to: Aims: • acquire a set of perspectives on the politics and culture of modern France via study of works reflecting key moments of national crisis from the First and Second World Wars to the Algerian War and the student uprising of May 68 • Further develop independent study skills by reading primary texts and developing personal responses to them in advance of lectures and seminars • Further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to literary texts • Further develop planning, research and academic writing skills. After the prescribed reading, and completion of the course, and of the hand-in Learning Outcomes: assignments, students are expected to be able to: • Demonstrate understanding of a number of interrelated themes central to the comprehension of modern France • Explain the relationship between writing and history at certain key moments of perceived national crisis • Analyse how national identity is constructed • Critically and analytically discuss primary and secondary material in class • Demonstrate independent research skills by drawing on the university library and other suitable resources to find information relevant to the aims of the course. • Combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgment to form clearly expressed critical examinations of a variety of texts (historical, polemical, creative) which exhibit a combination of critical reading, independent thought, and a capacity to construct an accurately referenced argument in appropriate scholarly form. The course will encourage students not to treat individual blocks or moments of Course Content: French history in isolation but rather to use these moments of crisis (political, military, economic, social. cultural, constitutional) as windows onto the phenomenon that is modern France, its institutions, self-images and identity. The course will introduce students to the question of how national and cultural identities are constructed and fostered and to a consideration of the potency of the icons, myths and discourses of French national life. The following areas will be considered: • The construction of national identity; the idea of the integrity and defence of the nation; xenophobia and anti-Semitism • Republican tradition seen as constructed identity; the legacy of 1789; the ideology of Republicanism; forces and opinion formers: the Army, the Press, the role of the intellectual and the writer. • Perspectives on the historical event: contemporary accounts; official discourses: notions of evolutionary continuity, the developing nation, the republican heritage; collective memory, revisionism and the reconstruction of historical events; the concept of generation; the role of cultural representations in different genres and media • Definitions of crisis: military crisis; ideological conflicts; political crisis: crisis of legitimisation; decolonization economic crisis; generations in conflict The contact element of the course will consist of one hour of classroom presence per Teaching & Learning week over the teaching year in which lectures alternate with seminars. Methods: All students are expected to attend the Academic Skills for Students of Modern Languages seminars. The independent study element of the class consists of reading the set texts in advance of the beginning of each block, reviewing reading/viewing in the light of the guide questions detailed on the block handout and researching, planning and writing coursework assignments. Details of teaching FR1104 Moodle site includes Pre-block Moodle tests; comprehensive block reading resources on Moodle: lists; course schedule; pre-block handouts and assignment details. Essential Reading (to be bought and read in advance of each block) and Viewing Key Bibliography: Block 1: World War 2 Reading: Gilles Martinez and Thierry Scotto di Covella, La France de 1939 à 1945 (Seuil 'Memo' no. 79, 1977) Viewing: Renoir, La règle du jeu ; Clouzot, Le corbeau Block 2: World War 1 Reading: Annette Becker & Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, La Grande guerre 1914-1918 (Gallimard, 'Découvertes', 1998) Viewing: tbc Block 3 La Bataille d’Alger Reading : Henri Alleg, La Question (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1961) Viewing: La Bataille d’Alger, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965. 791.437 BAT Block 4: Mai 68 Reading: Handouts Margaret Atack, May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Representation, Rethinking Society (OUP, 1999) Viewing: tbc Recommended Further Reading James F. McMillan, Twentieth-century France (London: Arnold, 2000) Ian Ousby, The Occupation (Cambridge, 1999) Robert Gildea, France since 1945 (Oxford, 1997)

Coursework assignments will be marked and returned with detailed feedback on Formative Assessment Relevance, Structure and Argument, Critical Thought and Evaluation, Style and & Feedback: Presentation. Correct answers will be available for each Pre-block Moodle test once

the test period is closed.

Summative Exam (50%) (2 hours) Students will sit a 2 hour examination in May comprising a Assessment: question drawing on at least two of the blocks studied and an essay question on one of the other blocks studied

Coursework (40 %) Students will complete two assignments: Assignment 1 – Essay 1,200-1,500 words (10% of overall summative assessment); Assignment 2 – Essay 1,200-1,500 words (30% of overall summative assessment).

Pre-block reading tests (10% of overall summative assessment). Students will sit three pre-block tests on Moodle (for blocks 2, 3, and 4) to demonstrate that they have read/watched primary texts/films before each study block.

Deadlines: As published on moodle and in handbook

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit THE VISUAL IMAGE IN FRENCH CULTURE Course Title: value, 0.5 AND SOCIETY PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR1105 R130 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Terms 1 and 2 Optional (Please state which (i.e.: Core, Core PR, teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional)

Pre-requisites: N/A Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Hemus Course Staff: Professor Ruth Harvey, Dr Ruth Hemus, Professor Eric Robertson

The aims of this course are to allow students to: Aims: • To analyse an extensive corpus of images across a range of media and contexts (painting, sculpture, photography, caricature, advertising, video clips), as well as across the centuries • To consider in the context of the massive circulation of images, the generalised social practice of receiving visual information the scientific, historical, aesthetic and ideological aspects of cultural representations in their relation with the written and spoken language • To develop social, cultural, communicative and interpretive skills through the study of different visual media • To enhance skills in interpreting visual material, becoming more receptive to visual signs and more critical in their appreciation of visual imagery and information • To develop more generalised reading skills, which support critical concepts studied elsewhere (e.g. point of view, descriptive detail, time and space, connotation and denotation) • To integrate these skills by examining certain elements (newspaper front pages, advertising and more generally imagery /figures of speech) in a way which synthesises writing strategies and reception and analyses in greater depth the communicative function of any language, be it verbal or visual (or both) • Further develop independent study skills by reading primary texts and developing personal responses to them in advance of lectures and seminars • Further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to visual images • Further develop planning, research and academic writing skills

After the prescribed reading, and completion of the course, and of the hand-in Learning Outcomes: assignments, students are expected to be able to: • Demonstrate awareness and appreciation of the complexity and richness of the visual image and an understanding of its functioning • Discuss the relationship between word and image in a variety of contexts and media • Critically and analytically discuss primary and secondary material in class • Demonstrate mastery of the appropriate technical and analytical vocabulary • Demonstrate independent research skills by drawing on the university library and other suitable resources to find information relevant to the aims of the course • Combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgment to form clearly expressed critical examinations of visual materials which exhibit a combination of critical reading, an understanding of the range of critical approaches which might be taken to such material, independent thought, and a capacity to construct an accurately referenced argument in appropriate scholarly form.

The course comprises the following areas of study: Course Content: • Image and Resemblance: the mimetic tradition; verisimilitude and visual representation; descriptive and expressive functions of the visual image; techniques of analysing visual images • Depth, Perspective, Time and Space: the tradition of one-point perspective; theories of representation; composition, distance and scale; angles of vision; the role of photography • Point of View: the role of the spectator; representation and ideology; art and politics; gendered representations • Semiology of the Visual Image: theories of Semiotics; denotation and connotation; approaches to decoding visual and linguistic messages; fixed and moving images.

Teaching & Learning The contact element of the course will consist of one hour of classroom presence per Methods: week over the teaching year in which lecture-style classes combine with seminars. All students are expected to attend the Academic Skills for Students of Modern Languages seminars. The independent study element of the class consists of reading the set texts in advance of the beginning of each block, reviewing reading in the light of the guide questions detailed on the block handout and researching, planning and writing coursework assignments

Details of teaching Reading lists; seminar preparation instructions; course-work assignments; powerpoint resources on Moodle: presentations from the classes; images used for class discussion and suggested for further individual study.

Essential Reading (to be bought and sections to be read as directed in advance of Key Bibliography: each block)

Fozza, Jean-Claude, Garat, Anne-Marie, Parfait, Françoise, Petite Fabrique de l’image (Paris: Magnard, 2003) [ISBN 2-210-42274-4]. Jean, Georges, Signs, Symbols and Ciphers: Decoding the Message (London: Thames & Hudson, New Horizons Series) Recommended Further Reading Berger, John, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin, 1972) [ISBN 0-14-021631-6]. Jean, Georges, Langage de signes, l’écriture et son double (Paris: Gallimard, 1989. Collection Découvertes, number 67. [ISBN 2-07-0530841] Joly, Martine, Introduction à l’analyse de l’image (Paris: Nathan, 1993. Collection Image 128, number 44) [ISBN 2-09-190634-8]

Formative Assessment All coursework assignments will be marked and returned with detailed feedback on & Feedback: Relevance, Structure and Argument, Critical Thought and Evaluation, Style and Presentation. Informal feedback will be given on students’ participation and moodle tests.

Summative Exam (50%) 2 hours: students must answer a commentary question (*from a choice of Assessment: two) and another question from a list of between 4 and 6

Coursework (50%) 10% assignment 1 (commentary) (1,200-1,500 words) 30% assignment 2 (essay) (1,200-1,500 words) 10% Moodle Test

Deadlines: Deadlines: as published on Moodle and in the course outline

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND Course Title: value, Half unit SOCIETY PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR1107 R1000 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which All year (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Dr M Landick Course Staff: Dr M Landick, Dr J Harris, Dr R Hemus The aims of this course are to allow students to: Aims: • Explore the ways in which the French language varies according to the situation of communication and the types of discourse employed • Present and apply theories of communication (e.g. those of Jakobson, Saussure and Barthes) in the analysis of a variety of oral and written sources • Further develop independent study skills by reading primary texts and developing personal responses to them in advance of lectures and seminars • Further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to literary texts • Further develop planning, research and academic writing skills.

After the prescribed reading, and completion of the course, and of the hand-in Learning Outcomes: assignments, students are expected to be able to: • Describe key elements of theories of language and communication as proposed by Jakobson, Saussure and Barthes • Apply these theories to examples of written and oral communication, comparing the ways in which the French language is used in differing social and/or cultural contexts • Produce commentaries analysing the use of language in a particular text, with reference, as appropriate, to lexical innovation, poetic technique (rhyme, rhythm, phonetic patterning etc), sociolinguistic issues etc • Suggest ways in which the identity of sender and receiver, or the context in which a message is produced, may affect the manner in which that message is encoded in language • Give examples of the ways in which innovation in language use may reflect or contribute towards processes of social and/or cultural change • Critically and analytically discuss primary and secondary material in class • Demonstrate independent research skills by drawing on the university library and other suitable resources to find information relevant to the aims of the course • Combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgment to form clearly expressed critical examinations of literary works which exhibit a combination of critical reading, independent thought, and a capacity to construct an accurately referenced argument in appropriate scholarly form.

Questions answered by the course will include: What is communication? How do Course Content: various forms of language relate to their social context? Where do new words come from? Who creates them? How do the principles and characteristics of communication apply to oral French, French chanson or new vocabulary? Following an introductory block on communication as a system, students will learn to apply general principles and more specific ones to three of the following areas of study: • The language of poetry • La chanson française • Language and gender • Reducing speech to writing.

Teaching & Learning The contact element of the course will consist of one hour of classroom presence per Methods: week over the teaching year in which lectures alternate with seminars.

All students are expected to attend the Academic Skills for Students of Modern Languages seminars. The independent study element of the class consists of reading the set texts in advance of the beginning of each block, reviewing reading in the light of the guide questions detailed on the block handout and researching, planning and writing coursework assignments.

Details of teaching Block descriptions, handouts, assignments. See also Key Bibliography below. resources on Moodle:

Key Bibliography: Poetry anthology (available via Moodle) Other readings available via tutors.

Formative Assessment All coursework assignments will be marked and returned with detailed feedback on & Feedback: relevance, structure and argument, critical thought and evaluation, style and presentation. The essay plan will be annotated and returned to students.

Summative Exam 50% (two hours) Assessment: Students will sit a two-hour exam. Section A offers a choice of an essay or a commentary. Section B offers a choice of five essay questions one of which must be answered with reference to at least two of the blocks studied

Coursework 40%

essay or commentary 1 10% (1,200-1,500 words) essay or commentary 2 30% (1,200-1,500 words)

Essay plan 10%

Deadlines: see Moodle/course schedule

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With effect from Department/School: School of Modern languages 2012-13 Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit PRATIQUE DE L'ÉCRIT: ANALYSER ET Course Title: value, 0.5 ARGUMENTER PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR2001 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Compuls (Please state which teaching Annual (i.e.: Core, Core PR, ory terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: FR1001 Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff: Dr Ruth Hemus, Dr Emily Salines,, Professor James Williams, Lectrices

Aims: To deepen students’ acquaintance with analytical techniques in French using texts of topical concern.

After completion of the course, the preparatory work and the hand-in Learning Outcomes: assignments, students are expected to be able to: • demonstrate and apply the linguistic and analytical skills required in the understanding of written target language (TL) material of a more demanding kind and in greater depth than in the Year I core-course (FR1001) • write concisely, accurately and effectively, paying particular attention to style and register as well as to specific methods of analysis • demonstrate a clear and confident grasp of problems in French grammar and explain them using appropriate terminology.

Course Content: The course builds on techniques acquired in first-year language courses through a particular focus on techniques of analysis, writing and rewriting, in particular on learning to construct arguments and exposés in authentic, accurate and appropriate French.

The course will be taught in weekly seminars throughout the teaching year. Teaching & Learning Methods: Seminars will be conducted in French and will focus on the further development of

reading and writing skills with emphasis on stylistic analysis, grammar and essay

writing techniques in French. The course will be based partly on articles from

authentic French sources, worksheets and other materials, which will be available

either as handouts or on MOODLE.

Set work will be of two kinds: preparatory and 'hand-in'. Preparatory work for each weekly seminar will consist of individual study and revision of vocabulary, syntax and grammar as well as analytical and written tasks, thereby building on the foundation provided by the course. You are strongly encouraged to make full use of the grammar exercises on MOODLE. As in Year 1 you will have to complete a certain number of exercises on MOODLE to have access to the examination.

Details of teaching resources on Moodle:

Extracts from a variety of sources provided as handouts and livrets and on Key Bibliography: Moodle. Jubb, M. and Annie Rouxeville, French Grammar in Context (London: Hodder Arnold, 2008). Morton, S., English Grammar for Students of French (London: Arnold, 2002) Offord, M, A Student Grammar of French (Cambridge: CUP, 2006) Ribière, M, and Thalia Marriott, Help Yourself to Advanced French Grammar (Edinburgh: Longman, 1998)

Formative Assessment & Coursework Feedback:

Summative Assessment: Exam 80% (60% written exam + 20% Moodle grammar exam) Coursework 20% Deadlines: as published on notice boards

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Code: FR2002 Course Value: 0.5 Status:

Title: Pratique de l’oral II Availability: Terms 1 and 2 Prerequisites: FR1002 Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff Cezara Bobeica, Elise Pampanay, Lea Vuong To develop students’ skills in listening, comprehension, expression and presentation through Aims: the medium of French.

By the end of this course, student should have * increased confidence and command of spoken French and enhanced listening comprehension skills * extended analytical skills required in the understanding of spoken French developed in FR1002 * enhanced understanding of contemporary French cultural and social issues through French cinema * sound understanding of the techniques of film analysis

Learning Outcomes:

The course is based on four French films studied in their entirety. Course Content:

Teaching & Students are assigned to a small group meeting weekly and the course is conducted in Learning French by French native speakers. Classes are interactive and include student Methods presentations, debates and discussions.

See material on Moodle. Key Bibliography:

In-course Feedback:

Exam: 80% Assessment: Coursework: 20%

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2012- Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 13 Course Value: (UG courses = unit value, Course Title: Writing Romance and Desire PG courses = notional learning 0.5 hours) Course JACS Code: Course Code: FR 2102 (Please contact Data R120 Management for advice) Status: Option Availability: (i.e.: Core, Core PR, (Please state which teaching terms) Terms 1 and 2 Compulsory, Optional) al Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Dr Hannah Thompson Course Staff: Dr Hannah Thompson, Prof Ruth Harvey, Prof John O’Brien, Ms Charlotte Hammond

Aims: The course aims to enhance students’ critical abilities and experience through guided study of the expression of themes related to love and desire as fundamental elements of the French literary tradition.

Learning Outcomes: After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are expected to be able • to build on the analytical skills acquired in Year 1 courses by applying them in greater depth to a more closely defined range of material and with a broader grasp of critical approaches • to demonstrate insight into the relationship between a text and its conditions of production and reception • to demonstrate enhanced critical awareness in relation to a perennially important and influential theme in the western literary canon • to demonstrate that they have further developed their ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses • to show that they have taken and developed a special interest in areas of this subject which might form the basis for further specialised study in final year.

Course Content: This course will focus on four texts dealing with love and desire taken from four periods; these will be studied in the light of their common themes and the following core questions: • the persistent importance of the theme of passion and illicit desire to the Western literary canon (the constitution of a literary tradition); • variation in the literary responses to this theme in the light of prevailing moral climates, socio-economic structures and aesthetic considerations; • the variables of the language of love and its literary realisation; • formal innovation, subversion and parody; • the roles of the narrative voice; • the significance of spatial settings in the treatment of a 'private' matter in a 'public' literary form.

Teaching & Learning Teaching will be by alternating lecture and seminar, and the seminars within Methods: each block will be lead by the staff member responsible for the lectures. The lectures will cover socio-historic and literary background, and major formal concerns; the seminars will explore these and related issues in detail by means of discussion of important passages and/or secondary critical material. In addition to the primary texts for each block, students will be expected to read selected secondary material and to prepare for each seminar by means of private study of particular issues.

Details of teaching The preparatory reading required in advance of lectures and seminars, resources on Moodle: course outline and bibliography will all be posted on moodle as will the four quizzes used to assess student knowledge of the texts.

The four texts to be studied are: Key Bibliography: • Prévost, Manon Lescaut (Flammarion) (CLC students use Penguin Classics translation) • Madame de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves (Flammarion) CLC students use Penguin Classics translation • Flaubert, Madame Bovary (Flammarion) (CLC students use Oxford World Classics Translation) • Beroul’s Roman de Tristan in Tristan et Iseut: Les poèmes français, la saga norroise , ed. & trans. D Lacroix & P.Walter, Le Livre de Poche, “Lettres Gothiques” series. French version: ISBN 2 - 253 - 05085 – 7/Penguin classics: ISBN 0 - 14 - 044230 – 8 General Bibliography (relevant to all parts of this course): Catherine Belsey, Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994) Part 1, chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4. [809.3354 BEL] Critical Terms for Literary Study, ed. Frank Lentricchia and T. McLaughlin, 2nd edition (Chicago & London, 1995) [801.95 CRI]

Formative Assessment & Informal feedback will be given during seminars on work done in class. The Feedback: detailed feedback given on the first piece of coursework will help with preparation for the second essay, and the feedback given on both essays will help with preparation for the exam.

Summative Assessment: Exam (50%) 2 hours and fifteen minutes including fifteen minutes reading time. Students will be required to answer 2 questions: a compulsory critical commentary on a passage from one of the set texts and a comparative question on the other texts chosen from a selection of between 4 and 6.

Coursework (50%): Critical Commentary (20%) 1,500-2000 words Essay (20%) 1,500-2,000 words Moodle Reading Texts (4 x 2.5%) A multiple-choice quiz on each text

Deadlines: as per the course schedule and moodle

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With effect from 2012 SMLLC Department/School: Academic -13 Session: CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY: LA FRANCE ET Course Value: ½ LA FRANCOPHONIE (UG courses = unit value, Course Title: PG courses = notional learning Unit hours) Course JACS Course Code: FR2104 Code: (Please contact Data Management for advice) Terms 1 and 2 Status: Opti Availability: (i.e.: Core, Core PR, (Please state which teaching terms) onal. Compulsory, Optional) 1104 Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: advis ed Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Cruickshank Course Staff: Dr Ruth Cruickshank, Professor John O’Brien, Anne-Célia Feutrie Through discussion of French and Francophone history and critical analysis Aims: of set texts, the course aims to: • introduce students to a range of issues which have helped shape modern French and Francophone cultural identity • develop an understanding of the workings of ideology in culture and society • develop the ability to critically analyze texts within a social and historical context • further develop students’ written presentation skills After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are Learning Outcomes: expected to be able to: • explain and discuss analytically a range of important issues which have figured in cultural and ideological debate in the French- speaking world • show awareness of the conceptual linkage between culture and ideology in political, philosophical and literary discourse • critically analyse texts in relation to ideological preoccupations • further develop their ability to use primary and secondary materials appropriately in critical analyses This course considers ways in which culture embodies ideological concerns. Course Content: Ideology can be seen as a potent system of concepts, myths, images and representations which, in any given society, affirm a hierarchy of values and seek to shape individual and collective perception and behaviour. Such a system of ideas is tied to an economic, political, ethnic, sexual or other grouping, expressing and valorizing its interests. As such, ideology has certain basic functions: it rationalizes a vision of the world and presents that view as universal; it seeks to eternalize historically particular and relative values; it mystifies by disguising the true nature of a situation, masking class interests or sexual or racial exploitation; it seeks to achieve social stability; it mobilizes individual and collective energies and directs these towards action. The workings of ideology are explored through study of key issues in post-War French culture at different including the movement in the twentieth century from colonization to decolonization; issues of immigration, working-class life, gender roles and the aftermath of the Second World War in French society.

Teaching & Learning The course is organised in four blocks taught by different members of staff; Methods: each dealing with a particular primary text (see reading below). It begins with an introductory lecture addressing general definitions of culture and ideology. Teaching is by alternating lecture and seminar. In addition to the primary texts for each block of study, students are expected to read selected secondary material and to prepare for each seminar through the private study of specific issues, as directed by the seminar tutor.

Details of teaching All p re-block quizzes, course stimulus material, requirements resources on Moodle: for preparation and slected secondary reading is on Moodle. Block 1 - Jacques Cartier, Voyages au Canada (pdf on Moodle). Key Bibliography: Block 2 - Claire Etcherelli, Elise ou la vraie vie (1967) ISBN 0415050936 Annie Ernaux, La place (1983) ISBN 2-07-037722-9; Une femme (1987) ISBN 2-07- 038211 Block 3 - Jean-Paul Sartre. Les Séquestrés d’Altona (1959) ISBN 2070369382 Block 4 - Annie Ernaux, La place (1983) ISBN 2-07-037722-9; Une femme (1987) ISBN 2-07-038211 Selected Secondary Reading Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, fifth edition, (Manchester University Press, 2009) Toril Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (Routledge, 2002) Siobhan McIlvanney, Annie Ernaux: The Return to Origins (Liverpool UP, 2001) Olive Patricia Dickason, The Myth of the Savage and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in the Americas (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984). Philip Dine. Images of the Algerian War (Oxford, Clarendon 1994) Alec Hargreaves, Immigration in Post-War France (London: Methuen, 1987) Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Chatto and Windus, 1993) Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (Fontana, 1976)

Formative Assessment Feedback is provided through detailed comments on the set pieces of work & Feedback: which make up the coursework element of the assessment. Answers will be made available for each Moodle Test shortly after its window for completion closes.

Summative Exam 50% Coursework 40% (one commentary; one essay) Assessment: Moodle tests 10% (four pre-block tests) Deadlines: as published on noticeboards

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit STAGE AND SCREEN IN FRANCE Course Title: value, 0.5

PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR2105 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Dr Joe Harris Course Staff: Dr Joe Harris, Prof James Williams, Avril Tynan, Dr Ruth Cruickshank

The aims of this course are to Aims: • introduce students to the specific technical and formal implications of the media of drama and film • enhance students’ critical knowledge and approaches with respect to these media • examine literary texts in the light of other adaptations and, in so doing, improve students’ awareness of the specificity of each form • examine the role of reception • improve analytical reading skills with respect to a variety of media.

After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are expected to Learning Outcomes: be able to • build on the analytical acquired in first-year courses, applying them to a further range of material and with a broader grasp of critical approaches • demonstrate an understanding of the specific technical and formal implications of creating drama and film and of the critical approaches which these require • make appropriate and constructive comparisons between the ways in which different media treat the same themes and creative preoccupations and the implications of these differences for reception • demonstrate that they have further developed their ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses

The course comprises four blocks taught by different members of staff. The content of Course Content: the blocks varies from year to year, but the emphasis is on selective thematic and stylistic analysis rather than on providing a broad historical overview. The following areas and questions are tackled in lectures and seminars: • Aristotelian and post-Aristotelian concepts of theatre: (dramatic unities; definitions of tragedy and comedy; applications, adaptations and subversions of these norms throughout the history of drama; constructing the (screen-)play: structure of the dramatic/cinematic text & reader's interaction with it). • Verbal and non-verbal forms of expression: (monologue; dialogue; intonation; delivery; natural and stylised forms of dramatic discourse; literal and symbolic levels of meaning; gesture; mime; physical action; lighting; decor; costume; mise en scène). • Treatment of time and space: (chronology and its subversion; simultaneity; 'real time' and dramatic time; unity/ diversity of setting; temporal and spatial disjuncture). • Drama and the mimetic tradition: (changing attitudes to verisimilitude; mimetic and abstract theatre; techniques of self-conscious drama). • Dramatic language and metalanguage: (authorial intervention; voiceover; complicity of character(s) with audience/viewer; prologue; epilogue; interlude). • Intertextuality and the referential code.

Teaching is by alternating lecture and seminar. The seminars explore in detail many of Teaching & Learning the Methods: formal and thematic issues raised by the lectures. In addition to the primary texts for each block, students are expected to read selected secondary material and to prepare for each seminar by means of private study of particular issues.

Details of teaching Bibliography, course outline, preparatory reading, moodle quizzes resources on Moodle:

Course outline, primary reading and viewing, suggested further reading etc. available Key Bibliography: on Moodle.

Formative Assessment Informal feedback will be given during seminars on work done in class. The detailed & Feedback: feedback given on the first piece of coursework will help with preparation for the second essay, and the feedback given on both essays will help with preparation for the exam.

Summative 2 Hour Exam: 50% Assessment: Coursework: 40% (2 essays of 1,500-2,000 words each; each worth 20%) Pre-block Moodle Tests: 10% (=4 x 2.5%)

Deadlines: as on course schedule and Moodle.

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Cinema in France: from Modernism to the Course Title: value, 0.5 Postmodern PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR2106 R130 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which Terms 1 and 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Prof James Williams Course Staff: Prof Eric Robertson, Ms. Albertine Fox, Prof James Williams

Through discussion of developments in French cinema and critical analysis of key Aims: films, the course aims to: • enhance familiarity with the historical development of French cinema • develop an understanding of the discursive structures of film • develop the ability to critically analyse films within their artistic and historical contexts • further develop students’ written presentation skills After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are expected Learning Outcomes: to be able to: • understand key stages and issues in the evolution of the new medium of film • demonstrate an appreciation of the ways in which film has contributed to the cultural development of France • discuss film in a detailed and sophisticated way • analyse film in an appropriate critical style and register, and demonstrate some knowledge of film theory • further develop their ability to use primary and secondary materials appropriately in critical analyses

This course examines key examples of French cinema from 1920 to the present day. Course Content: In contrast to mainstream cinema, which broadly supports and confirms the dominant artistic norms, the films studied have, at different historical moments and in various ways, attempted to break with tradition and to challenge the prevailing forms, structures and conventions of the genre. From this perspective the course will focus, in turn, on the distinct contributions of the avant-garde and surrealist films of the 1920s, war films of the 1930s and 1940s, the nouvelle vague which began in the late 1950s, and its postmodern legacy which still prevails today.

Teaching & Learning The course is organised in four blocks taught by different members of staff, each Methods: dealing with a particular period in French cinema. Teaching is by alternating lecture and seminar. Students will be expected to view all set films in advance.. Short extracts from films may sometimes be used in class for close analysis. Additionally, students are expected to read selected secondary material and to prepare for each seminar through the private study of specific issues, as directed by the seminar tutor.

Details of teaching Course outline, preparatory reading and viewing for seminars and lectures, resources on Moodle: bibliography, sample exam paper and four moodle quizzes

Crisp, Colin, The Classic French Cinema 1930–1960 (London: I. B. Tauris / Bloomington: Key Bibliography: Indiana University Press, 1997). Hayward, Susan, French National Cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 1993). Monaco, James, How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1981). Vanoye, Francis and Anne Goliot-Lété, Précis d’analyse filmique (Paris: Nathan, ‘Université’, 1992). To be bought : Powrie, Phil and Keith Reader, French Cinema: A Student’s Guide (London: Arnold, 2002).

Formative Assessment Informal feedback will be available during office hours on student performance in & Feedback: class. The written feedback on the first assignment will help with the preparation of the second assignment and the written feedback on both assignments will help with preparation for the exam. Feedback and answers on the moodle quizzes will be available shortly after the quiz has closed.

Summative Exam (50%) 2 hours. Students will be required to answer 2 questions: a question from Assessment: a choice of 4 on one of the topics studied and a comparative question, from a choice of between 4 and 6 on at least two further topics studied.

Coursework (50%): Essay (20%) 1,500-2000 words Essay (20%) 1,500-2,000 words Moodle Reading Texts (4 x 2.5%) A multiple-choice quiz on each set of films

Deadlines: as per the course schedule and moodle

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With effect from Department/School: School of Modern Languages 2012-13 Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit PRATIQUE DE L’ÉCRIT: COMMUNIQUER value, Course Title: 0.5 ET CONVAINCRE PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Course Code: FR3001 Data Management for advice) Status: Availability: (i.e.: Core, Core PR, (Please state which annual Core PR Compulsory, teaching terms) Optional) Pre-requisites: FR2001 Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff: Anne-Célia Feutrie, Dr Emily Salines, Lectrices

The course aims to: Aims: • Enhance students’ ability to analyse and compare written material from different sources in French; • Extend students’ competence in accurate discursive French; Develop students’ critical knowledge of the francophone press.

After completing the course and the written assignments, students should Learning Outcomes: be able to: • Synthesise, compare and analyse documents from authentic French sources; • Produce specific communicative exercises in creative writing on a given subject.

Course Content: The course content will be based on the teaching of comparative synthesis, the analysis of two documents on the same subject and will therefore enable students to acquire a highly transferable skill. The course will also be based on the teaching of creative writing on a given subject, thus introducing students to a variety of styles in written French.

Teaching & Learning The course will be taught in weekly seminars. These will be conducted Methods: largely in French and will focus on the development of analytical and communicative skills in written French with emphasis on critical comparison of press articles and communicative and creative writing. The course will be based on articles from authentic French sources, worksheets and other material, all of which will be supplied.

Details of teaching resources on Moodle:

For reference: Key Bibliography: Aplin, Richard, A Dictionary of Contemporary France (Hodder &

Stoughton, 1993) Albert, Pierre, La Presse Que sais-je? (Presses Universitaires de France, 1996) Hughes, Alex & Reader, Keith Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture (Routledge, 1998)

Formative Assessment & Coursework Feedback:

Summative Assessment: Exam 80% Coursework 20%

Deadlines: as displayed on noticeboards

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Code: FR3002 Course Value: 0.5 Status:

Title: Pratique de l’oral III Availability: Terms 1 and 2 Prerequisites: FR2002 Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Emily Salines Course Staff Cézara Bobeica ; Anne-Célia Feutrie ; Elise Pampanay ; Léa Vuong. *To extend students’ analytical and oral presentation skills Aims: * To extend students’ listening skills

*To enhance students’ ability to interact in French with particular emphasis on formal

spoken register *To develop awareness of cultural references of various kinds and to broaden knowledge of French culture and society.

After completion of the course and regular language practice, students are expected to be able to

* demonstrate enhanced analytical and oral presentation skills (by comparison with those developed in FR1002 and FR2002) * interact orally in authentic, accurate French of an appropriate register with an informed interlocutor, with particular emphasis on formal spoken registers * demonstrate an enhanced awareness of a broad range of cultural questions and of significant features of French culture and society. * Demonstrate enhanced listening comprehension skills and an enhanced ability to extract information and analyse material of an audio-visual nature.

Learning Outcomes:

The material studied includes: Course

Content: * Short passages of a demanding intellectual nature * Extracts from French documentaries and / or feature films * Recordings and podcasts (for example France Inter and France Culture cultural programmes) Through the study of this material, a broad range of cultural questions and significant features of French culture and society are discussed and analysed. Teaching & . Students are assigned to a small group meeting weekly. The course is conducted in French Learning by French native speakers. Methods Students are asked to give short presentations in French on a regular basis as well as to participate actively in discussions. Class work includes student presentations and discussions of key themes, based on texts and audio-visual material. Listening comprehension will be developed through weekly exercises based on student presentations as well as tasks based on podcasts and other recordings.

See material on Moodle. Key Bibliography:

In-course Feedback:

Exam: 80% Assessment: Coursework: 20%

Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: Course Title: ADVANCED TRANSLATING SKILLS UG ½ unit

Course JACS Code: Course Code: FR3003 R1000

Core for single Availability: Status: and major (Please state which T1 and T2 French teaching terms)

Pre-requisites: n/a Co-requisites: FR1004; FR2004 Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Cruickshank Course Staff: Dr Ruth Cruickshank, Dr Emily Salines The course aims to build on skills and knowledge acquired in FR1004 and FR2004 by Aims: extending awareness of translation problems, both those specific to translation between French and English and those generic to material used in the course. Thus students become more aware of difficulties which face French/English translators and acquire an analytical grasp of the problems posed by particular of texts, subject matter and scenarios. A fundamental aim is to enable students to see translation as a ‘real- life skill’, approaching tasks with which a professional translator might be faced, understanding the requirements and parameters of the task and tailoring their approach to these requirements. Scrupulous concern for accuracy is fundamental to this course which also aims to develop critical and editorial skills. A further aim is to familiarise students with reference tools available to translators. After completion of the course, preparatory work and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to be able to • demonstrate awareness of and ability to apply skills acquired in FR1003 and FR2003 • explain fundamental principles and procedures which underlie the process of translation and demonstrate awareness of some possible theoretical approaches to translation • explain and apply a variety of translation techniques and understand the ways in which they relate to varying genres and purposes • compare linguistic and expressive structures characteristic of French and English through close analytical reading of source and target texts • analyse critically both source and target texts with particular reference to features of lexis, syntax, style and register with a view to creating or appraising such features as appropriateness, authenticity, accuracy, coherence and equivalent effect • use research materials available to translators effectively. The course combines discussion of theoretical material derived from translation Course Content: textbooks with practical work to produce translations, devise and explain strategies, and offer annotations. Texts are selected from newspapers, magazines, web sites, government and NGO documents, literature and from such subject areas as politics, social questions, science, technology and medicine, æsthetics, literature and popular culture, always with an eye to the ‘realism’ of translating such material. Weekly seminars address linguistic, stylistic, socio-cultural and genre-related translation Teaching & Learning issues. Students produce translations of a variety of texts, but also compare translations Methods: and analyse procedures. Classes are centred around analysis and evaluation of translations and other work done at home, as well as group translation activities. Some work is done with IT support and students are encouraged to make use of on-line resources.

FR3003 Moodle site includes course handbook with pedagogical material, all texts for Details of teaching preparation in class and all assignments, together with useful web links. resources on Moodle:

Newmark, Peter, A Textbook of Translation (Phoenix ELT, 1995); Hervey Sándor & Ian Key Bibliography: Higgins, Thinking Translation (Routledge, 1992); Baker, Mona, In Other Words

(Routledge, 1992); Aplin, Richard, A Dictionary of Contemporary France (Hodder &

Stoughton, 1993); Le Petit Robert 1. Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la

langue française (Robert 1990); The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (any edition);

Collins-Robert French Dictionary (Collins, 2001) Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (OUP, 2001)

Eight hand-in exercises are set in the course of the year. These involve translation, Formative Assessment analysis, commentary and strategy tasks. Marks for the best 6/8 assignments (to include & Feedback: the mark of at least one DST) make up the 20% coursework mark.

Summative Exam (80%) (2 hours 15 mins) Students will sit a 2 hour examination comprising one Assessment: question of three parts passed on English-French translation and one question in three parts based on French-English translation Coursework (20 %) Students will complete six assignments including x2 Devoirs sur table (50 mins under exam conditions in class). Marks for these 6 assessments make up the 20% coursework mark.

Deadlines: As published on notice boards

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Course Title: Arthurian Romance: Chrétien de Troyes value, .5 PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3102 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which Term 1 or term 2 or terms 1-2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: N/A Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Professor Ruth Harvey Course Staff: Professor Ruth Harvey The aims of this course are Aims: • to examine the interrelated themes of knighthood, heroism, the aristocratic culture of courtliness and its implications; • to consider the ethical and aesthetic issues involved in the representation of chivalry and love in texts which, while chronologically remote from modern writing, are an integral part of the western literary tradition; • to enable students to become aware of a variety of critical approaches which may be taken with respect to such cultural production.

Learning Outcomes: After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are expected to be able to: • analyse and discuss selected Arthurian romances in relation to their courtly context; • account for the characteristic themes, preoccupations and ideology of such writing in terms of its production and reception; • demonstrate an awareness of current critical approaches and discourse concerning these works in formulating their own judgements on specific texts and issues; • express their judgements and analyses lucidly and in appropriate forms.

Course Content: The course will concentrate in depth on two closely connected Arthurian romances which deal at one and the same time with the development and with the subversion of a very influential vernacular literary form, the romance, and the poetic representation of contemporary aristocratic society. Core questions to be explored include: • Idealisation of chivalric heroism, of the lady and of social structures and codes against their socio-cultural background • The uses of irony and issues of patronage and audience reception • The relationship between chivalry and ‘courtly love’ • The development and treatment of Arthurian mythology

Teaching & Learning The course will consist largely of seminars, either one-hour weekly throughout the Methods: teaching year or two-hours weekly in Term 1 or Term 2. Lecture-style presentations by the course leader will combine with group discussions and student presentations. Seminars will focus on student participation and discussion and preparation will be required for each session. The texts will be analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to the main thematic issues.

Details of teaching Reading lists; preparation notes and instructions; coursework and presentation topics; resources on Moodle: handouts from lectures; important selected items from Reading List

Key Bibliography: Primary texts: at least TWO of the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, typically:

Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier au Lion ou ‘Yvain’, ed. and trans. D. Hult, Le livre de Poche “Lettres Gothiques” series (with a parallel translation into Modern French): Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charette ou le Roman de ‘Lancelot’, ed. and trans. C. Mela, Le livre de Poche “Lettres Gothiques” series (with a parallel translation into Modern French) ELCS Students: Chrétien de Troyes: Arthurian Romances, trans. W. Kibler and C. Carroll (Penguin Classics)

Formative Assessment Via individual tutorials, comments on student presentations and written feedback from & Feedback: coursework assignments.

Summative Assessment: If the course is run in Term 1 (Autumn) the assessment will be as follows:

long essay 80% (2,800-3,000 words) Short essay 20% (1,500-2,000 words)

If the course is run in Term 2 (Spring) the assessment will be as follows: essay 1 20% 1,500-2,000 essay 2 20% 1,500-2,000 moodle test or short essay 10% exam (2 hours 15 mins) 50%

If the course runs across both Terms 1 and 2, the assessment will be as follows: essay 1 30% 2,000-2,500 essay 2 60% 2,000-2,500 moodle tests / short essay / presentation 10%

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Repression and Rebellion: The Father and Course Title: value, 0.5 the Father’s Law PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR 3108 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Optional for (Please state which Terms 1 and 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, French and teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) ELCS/CLC Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Prof James Williams Course Staff: Prof John O’Brien, Mlle Léa Vuong, Dr Ruth Cruickshank, Prof Williams, The principal aims of this course are to: Aims: • examine key French theoretical texts in their historic and cultural context • introduce students to a specific range of texts on theory dealing with patriarchal structures and state authority • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to theory and culture

After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to be able to: • demonstrate their awareness of and ability to use techniques of textual analysis applied to theoretical writing in French. • demonstrate their ability to form critical judgments of theoretical works, based on carefully analysed textual features and thematic concerns. • demonstrate that they have developed an ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses. • explain and illustrate from an appropriate range of primary and secondary material the notion and the impact of patriarchal systems on a) political system b) the human psyche (unconscious) c) the colonialist phenomenon • Apply their knowledge of the ideology of patriarchal authority and its subversion to a specific range of texts

This wide-ranging course examines systems of patriarchal authority and repression and Course Content: their subversion. It ranges from examination of the political and psychological exploitation of language for particular aims, through phallocentric discourses of social control and their feminist critique, the critique of psychoanalysis, to revolutionary anti- tyranny theory and Foucauldian disciplinary technologies. Organised around four major blocks, the course addresses the related issues of patriarchy, ideology and cultural production, in the process offering an introduction to post-Marxist and post- structuralist thought; the language of tyranny in the Renaissance, as analysed by La Boétie in Discours de la servitude volontaire/The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, as well as a case of fake demonic imposture, approached through modern historical interpretation and the work of Michel Foucault; Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's explosive critique of psychoanalysis, Anti-Oedipe (Anti-Oedipus ) (1972), illustrated by Michel Tournier's novel Vendredi, ou les limbes du Pacifique (Friday); language and gender in post-war French feminist writing and thought, notably de Beauvoir and Cixous; and the role of violence and revolution in the liberatory anti-colonialist writing of Frantz Fanon, specifically Les damnés de la terre (The Wretched of the Earth) (1961).

Teaching & Learning The course will consist largely of one-hour weekly seminars throughout the teaching Methods: year. Lecture-style presentations by the course leader will alternate with group discussions and student presentations. Seminars will focus on student participation and discussion and preparation will be required for each session. The texts will be analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to the main thematic issues.

Details of teaching Course outline, preparation for seminars, full reading lists. resources on Moodle:

For French students : Key Bibliography:

• Peter Barry, Beginning Theory (3rd edition) (Manchester UP, 2009) • La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire, Ed. Simone Goyard-Fabre Paris : GF-Flammarion, 1983 • Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, L’Anti-Oedipe (Minuit, 1980) [selected pages to be supplied in photocopied form] • Michel Tournier, Vendredi, ou les limbes du Pacifique (Folio) • Toril Moi, Sexual Textual Politics (2nd edition) (Routledge, 2002) • Frantz Fanon, Les damnés de la terre (La Découverte, 2002)

For ELCS /CLC students:

• Peter Barry, Beginning Theory (3rd edition) (Manchester UP, 2009) • La Boetie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (trans. Malcolm Smith), available from the Departmental Office for £2.00. • Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Penguin Modern Classics, 2009) [selected pages to be supplied in photocopied form] • Michel Tournier, Friday (any edition) • Toril Moi, Sexual Textual Politics (2nd edition) (Routledge, 2002) • Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin Modern Classics)

NB: The material on the Marthe Brossier case in Block 1 will be supplied by the Department.

Suggested Secondary Bibliography : Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays, London, Verso, 1971, p1-60 Pierre Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire, L’économie des échanges linguistiques, Ed. Fayard, Paris, 1982/ Language & Symbolic Power (Polity, 1992) Kate Millet, Sexual Politics, New York, Doubleday, 1970 Laplanche et Pontalis, Vocabulaire de la Psychanalyse, Ed. PUF, Paris, 1967 Paul Rabinow (Ed), An Introduction to Foucault’s Thought, Penguin, 1984 Margaret Whitford, Patriarchy, Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, Dialogues (Flammarion, 2008)/ Dialogues (Continuum, 1987).

Formative Assessment Via individual tutorials, comments on student presentations and written feedback from & Feedback: coursework assignments

Coursework (40%): Summative Assessment: Short essay 1 ( 1,500-2,000) 20% Short essay 2 ( 1,500-2,000) 20%

Class presentation (10%)

2-hour exam in May (50%)

Deadlines: as per the course schedule and Moodle

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Gender and Transgression in Early-Modern Course Title: value, 0.5 units French Literature PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3109 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which For 2012-13 session: T1 and T2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Dr Joe Harris Course Staff: Dr Joe Harris The aims of this course are to: Aims: • examine a range of early-modern texts in their cultural context, with particular reference to gender • further develop students’ analytical skills and critical approaches to the literary text • develop students’ cultural awareness with specific reference to gender, sexuality and desire • consider the relationship between transgressive behaviour and dominant social norms of gender.

After successful completion of this course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in Learning Outcomes: assignments, students are expected to be able to: • understand how transgressions in terms of sex and gender relate to wider issues of sexuality, power, psychology, society, taboos and literary genre. • explain how reflecting on marginal or non-standard forms of gender behaviour can both strengthen and challenge ideas of ‘normal’ gender roles. • demonstrate their ability to form critical judgments of literary works, based on carefully analysed textual features and thematic concerns. • demonstrate their ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses. • demonstrate independent research skills by drawing on the university library and other suitable resources to find information relevant to the aims of the course • combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgment to form clearly expressed critical examinations of a variety of texts which exhibit a combination of critical reading, independent thought, and a capacity to construct an accurately referenced argument in appropriate scholarly form. While we might expect early-modern France to have rigidly fixed attitudes towards Course Content: marriage, gender roles and sexuality, the period as a whole showed both fascination and anxiety about characters who challenged norms of accepted gender behaviour. In this course we’ll focus on a range of texts written between the Renaissance and the early eighteenth century, all of which present characters who defy social expectations, whether by consciously adopting the attributes of the opposite sex or by failing to live up to the expectations of their own. As we shall see, gender transgression can take on a variety of forms in a period in which it was considered scandalously unfeminine just for a woman to speak openly of her own desires. Yet does ‘unfeminine’ necessarily translate as ‘masculine’? How does gender identity relate to such issues as biological sex, patriarchal power, social freedom, female sexual agency, homosexuality? Although these texts treat transgression in a range of ways – sympathetically, critically, comically, tragically – the period’s fascination with marginal and transgressive forms of gender betrays throughout a deep unease about the validity of its own sexual norms and standards. The course consists of twenty hours’ formal teaching, with either one or two hours of Teaching & Learning classes per week depending on whether the course is taught over one term or two. Methods: Lecture-style presentations by the course leader are interspersed with group discussions and student presentations. Seminars focus on student participation and discussion, and preparation is required for each session. The texts are analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to the main thematic issues. The FR3109 Moodle pages provide information about course structure, essay Details of teaching questions and deadlines, course handouts, bibliographies, an online editable resources on Moodle: glossary and external links to relevant websites (including early-modern French dictionaries). Louise Labé, Sonnets, in Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1986) Key Bibliography: Pierre Corneille, Horace, any edition Molière, Les Femmes savantes, any edition abbé de Choisy, Mémoires de l’abbé de Choisy habillé en femme and ‘Histoire de la Marquise-Marquis de Banneville’ (Toulouse: Ombres, 1995) Anne du Boccage, Les Amazones (available via Moodle) Verbal feedback within seminars, verbal and written feedback on student Formative Assessment presentations, one-to-one discussion of essays and presentations (if requested). & Feedback: Specific classroom sessions on essay-skills and revision techniques will also be provided when this is considered helpful.

Summative Coursework : 50%: exam Assessment: 40%: two 2,000-2,500-word essays (each at 20%) 10%: Moodle tests

Deadlines: as per moodle and course schedule

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Fictions of History: Narrative, Film and Course Title: value, Half Unit Event in Early Modern France PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3111 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Autumn, Spring or across both terms (Please state which (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional depending on sabbatical arrangements teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Professor John O’Brien Course Staff: Professor John O’Brien The aims of this course are to: Aims: • examine the relationship between Early Modern literature and the events that constitute its contextual specificity • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to the history/literary text/film • develop cultural awareness with specific reference to Early Modern France in literature and film • develop an appreciation of the themes of history, literature and film in relation to Early Modern France’s cultural production

After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to • demonstrate their ability to evaluate critically various models of historical understanding. • demonstrate their ability to evaluate the relationship between history and narrative, based on carefully analysed textual features and thematic concerns. • demonstrate that they have developed an ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses. • address the central problem of the Other in an age of discovery and transition

The purpose of this course is to introduce Final Year students to the kinds of critical Course Content: reflection that have revolutionised our understanding of what it means to write history in the early modern period. Critical thinkers ranging from Certeau and Veyne in France to Greenblatt and Davis in America have challenged the notion of the objectivity of historical writing and shown how history is created by the narrative that tells it. History is a story; narration produces event. This course centres on three historical moments from the period 1430-1630 of significance for our understanding of how documents were used to shape events, rather than merely to reflect them. The selection of three incidents will be from a range including the French explorations in the New World, cases of witchcraft and possession, and Wars of Religion. The common thread linking all these instances is an encounter with the Other seen as a threat to civil, political, cultural or religious order and stability. In each case, contemporary historical documents from the early modern period are set side by side with a present-day film of the event and with selected critical writing about it in order to study several narrations and interpretations of the same topic. The course provides exciting intersections with other final year half units, in particular those exploring the early-modern period: Desire and Transgression in Early-Modern French Literature, and The Libertines: Narratives of Experience in Early Modern France, as well as, more generally, those exploring the inter-workings of society, power, knowledge and history, such as Ethics and Violence: Murder, Suicide and Genocide in Literature and Film

Teaching & Learning The course will consist largely of seminars, either one-hour weekly throughout the Methods: teaching year or two-hours weekly in Term 1 or Term 2. Lecture-style presentations by the course leader will alternate with group discussions and student presentations. Seminars will focus on student participation and discussion and preparation will be required for each session. The texts will be analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to the main thematic issues. Oral presentations will not normally be held in the first few weeks of term. This is to ensure that students will not be unduly disadvantaged if they choose to deliver a presentation early in the course.

Details of teaching Curriculum for each block resources on Moodle: Topic for each session Bibliographies for each author and topic Montaigne, ‘Des coches’ and ‘Des cannibales’ Key Bibliography: Las Casas, La destruction des Indes

Thevet, Les singularitez de la France antarctique

Léry, Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil

Le Sueur, Histoire d’un faux & supposé mary

D’Aubigné, Les feux and Les fers from Les Tragiques Surin, Triomphe de l’amour divin sur les puissances de l’enfer

Formative Assessment Via individual tutorials, comments on student presentations and written feedback from & Feedback: coursework assignments.

Summative Exam N/A Assessment: Coursework 100%

20% Short essay (1,500-2,000 words) that will be taken in, formally assessed, and

returned with feedback.

80% Long essay (2,800-3,000 words) (in addition to the 20 teaching hrs students will

receive 30 mins individual supervision)

Deadlines: For short and long essays – as published in the Student Handbook.

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With effect from 2012- Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 13 Course Value: (UG courses = unit Image, Identity and Consumer Course Title: value, ½ Unit Culture in Post-war Fiction and Film PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3112 R130 Management for advice) Optio nal. Availability: Status: Terms 1 and 2 Avail (Please state which teaching (i.e.: Core, Core PR, able terms) Compulsory, Optional) to CLC, ELCS and BATVF Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Cruickshank Course Staff: Dr Ruth Cruickshank

The aims of this course are to Aims: • examine the relationship between a range of post-1945 literary texts and films and their historical, cultural and critical context • develop cultural and critical awareness of the influence of the mass media and the market on innovations in literature and cinema in post-war France • develop an appreciation of the role of film and fiction in the politics of gender and sexual, racial and individual identity • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to the literary text and to film, discussing their relationship with other contemporary forms of cultural production

Learning Outcomes: After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand- in assignments, students are expected to be able to • identify and interpret the links between developments in post-war French society and different forms of cultural production • analyse different literary and filmic techniques and their relationship with the images and discourses of consumer culture • explain how and why writers and filmmakers have contributed to the development of post-war French identity politics • show familiarity with the methods of independent research and prove the ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses • demonstrate their ability to combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgement to form clearly expressed critical examinations of literary works and films in writing, in group discussions and in oral presentations

Course Content: Since 1945, radical changes precipitated by the development of consumer culture in France have created new images of the self that intersect with questions of gender, race, sexuality and exclusion. This course investigates the exciting ways in which post- war French literature and cinema both reflect and influence the impact of the mass media and global market forces on ways of constructing and expressing identity. Weekly seminars examine how some of the most original writers and filmmakers of the last six decades have explored new ways of understanding identity by representing, appropriating or exploiting the techniques of advertising, animation, Hollywood, crime fiction, television and journalism. Situating these innovations in their historical, cultural and critical context, the aim is to assess how contrasting novels and films engage with identity politics by drawing on the images and discourses of consumer culture. Combining the study of films, literary texts and other contemporary media, the course It furthers understanding of some of the key issues of concern affecting life in France from the end of the Second World War to the present day.

Teaching & Learning If running ‘Term 1 or Term 2 only two hours of seminar weekly; if running Methods: across Term 1 and Term 2 one hour weekly (20 Hours total). Teaching and learning are organised through staff-led discussion and student presentations. Issues raised will be explored in detail via group discussions and student presentations. Complementary perspectives will be introduced through other contemporary documents from advertising and print media to critical commentary. Preparation will be required for each session by viewing the required films, reading the primary texts and preparing selected secondary material. All students are required to make a presentation and to participate actively in group discussion.

Details of teaching All course handouts and further links/resources available on Moodle. resources on Moodle:

Key Bibliography: Texts: Georges Perec, Les Choses (Paris: Juliard, 1965)/Things, trans. by David Bellos (London: Havill Press, 1999); Didier Daeninckx, Meurtres pour mémoire (Paris Gallimard. 1984)/ Murder in Memoriam, trans by Liz Heron (London, Serpent's Tail,2005); Marie Darrieussecq, Truismes (Paris: Gallimard, 1998)/Pig tales, trans. by Linda Coverdale 2003) Films: Jacques Tati, Jour de fête (1949) DVD VO/subtitled; Jean-Luc Godard, Masculin/Féminin (1966) DVD VO/subtitled; Sylvain Chomet, Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) DVD VO/subtitled It is strongly recommended that students read the texts/see the films before the start of the academic session. NB English translations for CLC/ELCS/BATVF students only.

Recommended further reading David H. Walker, Consumer Chronicles: Cultures of Consumption in Modern French Literature (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011) Jill Forbes and Michael Kelly: French Cultural Studies: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) Jean Fourastié, Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible de 1946 à 1975 (Paris: Fayar 1979) Robert Gildea, France since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) Susan Hayward, French National Cinema (Routledge, 2005 – 2nd edition) Alex Hughes and Keith Reader, Encylopedia of Contemporary French Culture (London: Routledge, 1998) Raymond Kuhn, The Media in France (London: Routledge, 1995) James McMillan, Modern France (Paris: Oxford University Press, 2003) Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (Cambridge MA and London: MIT Press, 1995) Phil Powrie and Keith Reader, French Cinema: A Student’s Guide (London: Arnold, 2002)

Formative Assessment & Each student may have ten minutes’ individual discussion in Feedback: preparation for the presentation, and will receive formal written feedback after it. Students may also arrange 30 minutes’ individual supervision in preparation for the writing of their long essay.

Summative Assessment: Coursework (100%) 20% Oral presentation (15minutes + 5 minutes of questions) with accompanying written material (hand-outs, bibliography, etc) that will be taken in, formally assessed, and returned with feedback. 80% Long essay (2,800-3,000 words) Deadlines: Oral presentation. Date to be agreed between student and tutor in advance. Long essay deadline as published on notice boards and on Moodle. Deadlines: As on notice boards/Moodle.

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Text and Image in France: from Cubism to Course Title: value, 0.5 the Present PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3113 R130 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Terms 1 and 2, Term 1 or Term 2 (Please state which (i.e.: Core, Core PR, optional depending on sabbatical arrangements teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Professor Eric Robertson Course Staff: Professor Eric Robertson The aims of this course are to: Aims: • equip students with the necessary critical skills to engage in interdisciplinary analysis; • familiarize students with concepts of modern comparative aesthetic theory; • study select examples of textual and visual forms of expression from the early twentieth century to the present day, paying particular attention to the various collaborative and multi-disciplinary innovations that characterised the avant- garde in France in this period; • develop an understanding of the critical processes involved in interpreting texts and images.

After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to be able to • demonstrate their awareness of and ability to use techniques of textual and visual analysis and to apply these to the figures studied. • demonstrate their ability to form critical judgments of literary works and visual images, and to show an awareness of relevant critical theories. • demonstrate an ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses. • Analyse the relationship between textual and visual modes of representation in the work of the figures examined.

The course explores the relationship between textual and visual forms of expression from Course Content: the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first. The course will focus on textual/ visual relations from a variety of critical perspectives and through a range of chronologically discrete sources. All the key texts will be examined in parallel with the artworks that inspired them, and these primary sources will be considered in their wider socio-cultural and aesthetic contexts. The course will typically explore a selection of the following: • Hybrid textual / visual works such as the ‘premier livre simultané’ of Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay, the visual poetry of Apollinaire, and Henri Michaux’s works composed of signs; • The art criticism of creative writers and poets; • Illustrated livres d’artiste; philosophically-charged writings inspired by artists, such as Foucault’s and Deleuze’s essays on post-war artist Gérard Fromanger, and Barthes’s notes on photography.

The course will consist of one weekly hour throughout terms 1 and 2 or 2 hours in either Term Teaching & Learning Methods: 1 or Term 2. After one or two introductory lecture-style presentations by the course leader, the course will be based on group discussions and student presentations. Seminars will focus on student participation and discussion and preparation will be required for each session. The texts and artworks will be analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to wider theoretical issues of interpreting visual and textual media.

Details of teaching The course description, general reading list, schedule of classes, slides discussed in class, resources on Moodle: links to art museum websites, and other information relating to the course are all available on the FR3113 Moodle page.

Guillaume Apollinaire, Calligrammes. Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre Key Bibliography: Jean Arp, Jours effeuillés [extracts on handout] Roland Barthes, La chambre claire: note sur la photographie Blaise Cendrars, Du Monde entier Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault, Gérard Fromanger: la peinture photogénique Henri Michaux, Face aux verrous

Feedback is provided through detailed comments on the set pieces of work which make Formative Assessment up the formative element of the assessment. & Feedback:

Summative One long essay of 2,800-3,000 words worth 80% of overall mark. (In additional to the 20 Assessment: learning hours the student is entitled to 30 mins of individual supervision) One essay of 1,500-2,000 words worth 20% of overall mark

Deadlines: as published on moodle and in the course outline

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 2012-2013 Ethics and Violence: Murder, Suicide Course Value: Course Title: (UG courses = unit value, Half unit and Genocide in Literature and Film PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: Course Code: FR3114 (Please contact Data R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which Terms 1 and 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Professor Colin Davis Course Staff: Professor Colin Davis

Aims: These are: • to examine the interrelated themes of murder, suicide and genocide in a range of French texts and films; • to consider the ethical and aesthetic issues involved in the representation of violence; • to study the political and historical contexts in which acts of violence are presented as morally justifiable; • to develop skills in literary and film analysis acquired on other courses.

Learning Outcomes: After completion of the course, students are expected to be able: • to understand how and why writers and filmmakers have contributed to discussion of ethical, political and psychological aspects of violence; • to analyse different literary and filmic techniques used in texts and films about violence; • to explain the problems of representing violence in literature and on film, and to understand the options available to writers and filmmakers dealing with the subject; • to formulate well-informed critical judgements on specific texts and film and to compare techniques and standpoints adopted in contrasting texts and films; • to express their judgements and analyses lucidly and in appropriate form, both in oral and written contexts.

Course Content: Why do people kill? Can murder or suicide ever be justified? How can murder escalate in scale to the point that it turns into genocide? The course examines these questions by looking at how they have been dealt with in texts and films concerned with the ethical and political dilemmas of the twentieth century. Political and self-destructive uses of violence will be considered to see how far they can be explained and judged to be legitimate. The course concludes by studying some of the specific problems of understanding and representing the Holocaust.

Teaching & Learning If taught over one term the course will consist of a weekly two-hour seminar. If Methods: taught over two terms it will consist of a weekly hour-long seminar. Teaching and learning will be organised through staff-led discussion and student presentations. Each week students will be expected to undertake private study to prepare for the seminar, and they will be required to make a presentation to the seminar group during the course.

Details of teaching Course descriptions, reading lists, powerpoint presentations. resources on Moodle:

Key Bibliography: Texts and films to be studied will include some of the following:

Primary Texts:

Albert Camus, L’Etranger, Les Justes, La Chute Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mains sales Elie Wiesel, La Nuit, L’Aube

Films: La Bête humaine (dir. Jean Renoir) Le Jour se lève (dir. Marcel Carné) Le Feu follet (dir. Louis Malle) Etat de siège (dir. Costa Gavras) Nuit et brouillard (dir. Alain Resnais) Shoah (dir. Claude Lanzmann)

Formative Assessment Feedback is provided through detailed comments on the set pieces of work which & Feedback: make up the coursework element of the assessment.

Summative Coursework: Long essay (80%). 3000 words Assessment: Oral presentation (20%)

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: Course Value: (UG courses = unit Course Title: Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. value, 0.5 PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3115 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which Term II (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Ms. Anna Orhanen Course Staff: Ms. Anna Orhanen

Through reading, discussion and critical analysis of set texts, the course aims to: Aims:

• introduce students to a complex and highly influential work of literature • develop students’ understanding of the movements of the novel and the inter- relations of its component volumes • develop students’ sense of the formal concerns of the novel, its rich and wide- ranging thematic concerns, and how together these give Proust a privileged place in literary history

After completion of the course and the prescribed reading, students are expected to be Learning Outcomes: able to:

• discuss analytically the structure and development of Proust’s novel • demonstrate familiarity with the central thematic preoccupations of the novel • analyse, through close reading and commentary, characteristic features of Proust’s writing • assess critically some of the philosophical-intellectual dilemmas explored by Proust’s narrator as well as the nature of aesthetic experience in Proust

After reading ‘Combray’, the opening section of A la recherche we will study the second Course Content: and fifth volumes in their entirety and the final two thirds of the last volume. In ‘Combray’ and A l’ombre des jeunes filles we get acquainted with Proust’s narrator and the individuals and forces that shape his childhood and youth: habit, art, relationships, love, and desire will all be analysed in detail. In studying La Prisonnière and Le Temps retrouvé we will address questions of jealousy and obsession, mortality, and in particular the functions of art.

Lectures and seminars will focus on the grand movements, structures, and themes of Proust’s novel, as well as on the intricate business of detail at the level of the individual sentence or phrase. The themes which will be emphasised throughout the course are art, memory, time and subjectivity. We will examine in more detail the ways in which the various aesthetic experiences – of paintings, music, performance and the reading of literature – are presented in the novel. We will also focus on the innovative conception of subjectivity and selfhood that Proust’s novel portrays.

The course will consist of one two-hour session per week throughout Term II. The first part of Teaching & Learning the sessions will consist of lecture-style presentations by the course leader followed by a Methods: seminar, which will focus on student participation and the discussion of specified passages/sections of text. Reading and preparation will be required for each session. Sessions will be devoted to thematic, conceptual and technical issues as well as to producing (and debating) critical commentaries on passages from the novel.

Details of teaching Course outline, bibliography, preparatory reading for seminars resources on Moodle:

The recommended text is the one-volume ‘Quarto’ edition, A la recherche du temps perdu Key Bibliography: (Paris: Gallimard, 1999), which contains the complete text and allows you easily to refer to all of the novel’s volumes.

Primary Reading

• ‘Combray’ (the first part of Du côté de chez Swann) (pp. 13-153) and ‘Bois de Boulogne’ episode (in the third part of Du côté de chez Swann) (p.338-342) • A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (pp. 347-744) • Sodome et Gomorrhe (‘Intermittences du coeur’) (p.1323-1336) • La Prisonnière (pp. 1607-1915) • Le Temps retrouvé (from p. 2253)

For ELCS students the recommended edition is the translation by C.K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, published in 6 volumes by Vintage; the prescribed reading is

• the first part of volume 1 (Swann’s Way) and ‘Bois de Boulogne’ episode in part III of Swann’s Way • all of volume 2 (Within a Budding Grove), • ‘Intermittences du coeur’ passage from volume 4 (Sodome and Gomorrah) (this will be made available for students separately in Moodle/on a handout) • the first half of volume 5 (The Captive) and • the latter part of volume 6 (Time Regained).

Selected Secondary Reading Bales, Richard, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Proust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) Bowie, Malcolm, Proust Among the Stars (London: HarperCollins, 1998) Descombes, Vincent, Proust. Philosophie du roman (Paris: Minuit, Coll ‘Critique’, 1987) Hindus, Milton, A Reader’s Guide to Marcel Proust (Syracuse University Press, [1962] 2001) Watt, Adam, The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Formative Assessment Feedback will be provided informally and via detailed comments on the shorter piece of & Feedback: coursework (the critical commentary).

Summative Coursework (100%) Assessment: Critical commentary (20%), 1,500-2,000 words. Long essay (80%) 2,800-3,000 words. (in addition to 20 hours teaching, students will be entitled to 30mins individual supervision)

Deadlines: As per course schedule/Moodle.

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 12-13 Course Value: (UG courses = unit The Passion of Place: Desire and Identity Course Title: value, 0.5 in Modern Paris PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR 3117 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: Optional for (Please state which Term 1 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, French and ELCS teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) students Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Dr Hannah Thompson Course Staff: Dr Hannah Thompson The aims of this course are to: Aims: • examine key 19th and 20th century texts and films in their cultural and geographical context • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to the literary text/film • develop cultural awareness with specific reference to the city of Paris in literature and film • develop an appreciation of the themes of sex, gender and racial identity in relation to modern France’s cultural production.

After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to be able to • demonstrate their awareness of and ability to use techniques of textual analysis applied to creative writing and film in French. • demonstrate their ability to form critical judgments of literary works, based on carefully analysed textual features and thematic concerns. • demonstrate that they have developed an ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses. • explain the role and function of the city of Paris in France’s cultural production • analyse the relationship between issues of sex, gender and racial identity and the environment in which these issues exist. In this course we focus on a range of texts and films produced in France between 1869 and Course Content: 1996. All the texts and films are set in Paris and present a particularly interesting and important vision of physical, cultural and social aspects of the capital. We will look at the ways in which the presence of Paris influences the text’s or film’s plot, themes, structure and style and characters. The texts and films under discussion also all focus on the central protagonists’ search to determine and engage with aspects of their own identity and this search is frequently inseparable from the city in which it occurs. This course will question why the quest to define one’s identity is so bound up with the place one lives and will look at the relationship between the internal and the external, the personal and the public which is mapped out in each of these texts and films.

Teaching & Learning The course will consist of two hours of teaching across Term 1. Lectures will alternate with Methods: seminars. Presentations by the course leader will alternate with class discussions. Seminars will focus on student participation and discussion and preparation will be required for each session. The texts and films will be analysed in detail and sessions will also be devoted to the main thematic issues as well as to the preparation and planning of the hand-in assignments.

Details of teaching Students will be expected to prepare in advance for seminars using the guided reading resources on Moodle: published on Moodle. Handouts and powerpoint presentations from seminars will also be available as well as reading lists and web resources. Set texts: (to be bought in the recommended edition): Key Bibliography:

Emile Zola, La Curée (Folio Classique) ISBN 2070411419

CLC students only: Emile Zola, The Kill (Oxford World’s Classics) ISBN 0192804642

Gustave Flaubert, L’Education sentimentale (GF Flammarion) ISBN 2080711032 CLC students only: Gustave Flaubert, A Sentimental Education: The Story of a Young Man (Oxford World’s Classics) ISBN 978-0199540310

Leos Carax, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (DVD/Video) Eric Rohmer, Un conte d’hiver / A Winter’s Tale (DVD/Video) Cédric Klapisch, Chacun cherche son chat / When the Cat’s Away (DVD/Video) Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Le Favuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain / Amélie

Formative Assessment The detailed written feedback given on the first coursework assignment will help with the & Feedback: preparation of the second. Feedback on the second will help on revision for the exam.

Summative Coursework: 100%: Assessment:

Short Essay: 1,500-2,000 words (20%) Long Essay: 2,800-3,000 words (80%) Deadlines: as per course schedule and moodle.

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 2011-12 Course Value: (UG courses = unit Course Title: Final-Year Dissertation value, 0.5 PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3119 ??? Management for advice) Obligatory for Availability: Status: Single Hons and (Please state which All year (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Majors, optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) for Joint Hons Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Co-ordinator: Prof James Williams Course Staff: Dissertations must be supervised by a member of staff from French at RHUL The aims of this course are to: Aims: • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to French texts (literary and/or non-literary/filmic), discussing their relationship with other contemporary forms of cultural production in France. • examine key works of French culture in their social, cultural and theoretical context • develop proper cultural awareness of the themes and issues under discussion.

After completion of the course, students are expected to be able to Learning Outcomes: • show familiarity with the methods of independent research and prove the ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in their critical analyses • demonstrate their ability to combine techniques of textual analysis and personal judgement to form clearly expressed critical examinations in writing of literary or non- literary works. • demonstrate their awareness of, and ability to use, techniques of textual analysis applied to critical and creative writing (or film) in French. • demonstrate their ability to form critical judgments based on carefully analysed textual features and thematic concerns.

Course Content: Open. This course enables you to write a dissertation of 5,000-6,000 words on a suitable topic of your choice, for which appropriate supervision is available within French in the SMLLC. The topic may be related to a subject on which you have been taught but you should avoid significant overlap with previously studied material; it may equally be related to a fourth-year option course you are taking.

The teaching will consist of 2 hours’ group tuition on the ‘methodology’ of the dissertation Teaching & Learning Methods: format in Term 1 (covering matters such as developing a topic, developing a ‘problématique’, managing one’s time, structuring one’s material, referencing and so on), plus in Term 2 a further 2 hours’ individual supervision and formative feedback on preparatory drafts for a dissertation of 5,000-6,000 words (the 2 hours to be divided up as student and supervisor judge appropriate).

Details of teaching Course specifications, outline of group sessions, dissertation-writing guidelines on Moodle. resources on Moodle:

To be formalised once the topic has been chosen. Key Bibliography:

Formative Assessment Via group and individual tutorials, plus comments on submitted material, for example & Feedback: bibliography and/or filmography; supervisors may read up to 2,000 words max. of draft material.

Coursework (100%) A dissertation of 5-6,000 words, including footnotes but excluding Summative Assessment: bibliography. Deadlines: This will be according to the agreed School deadline for Dissertations in April (ie in first part of Easter vacation).

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Department/School: SMLLC Academic Session: 2012-13 Course Value: (UG courses = unit Wanton Women: artists and writers of the Course Title: value, Half unit French avant-garde PG courses = notional learning hours) Course JACS Code: (Please contact Data Course Code: FR3120 R120 Management for advice) Availability: Status: (Please state which Term 2 (i.e.: Core, Core PR, Optional teaching terms) Compulsory, Optional) Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Hemus Course Staff: Dr Ruth Hemus

These are to: Aims: • highlight the interventions of women writers and artists in the avant-garde movements of the early 20th C in France, including Dada and Surrealism • examine in detail selected literary texts (poems, narratives and manifestos) and artworks (collages, paintings and photographs) in their social, political and cultural context • further develop analytical skills and critical approaches to the literary text and artwork • develop awareness of the place of gender in cultural production and reception • discuss definitions of the avant-garde artist and avant-garde woman artist, with an outlook to later 20th C and contemporary French culture

After completion of the course, the prescribed reading and the hand-in assignments, Learning Outcomes: students are expected to be able to: • analyse the textual features and thematic concerns of literary works and artworks and discuss them with reference to social, political and cultural context • outline the ways in which individual women developed and deployed new themes and techniques in early 20th C literature and art • discuss the relationship between issues of gender and cultural production, particularly in relation to early 20thC avant-garde movements in France but with a broader outlook • show familiarity with methods of independent research and prove the ability to make appropriate use of both primary and secondary material in critical analyses of texts

Course Content: The so-called avant-garde movements of the early 20th century are renowned for both their aesthetic innovation and socio-political ambitions. For a long time, however, these groups, including Dada and Surrealism in the French context, were largely characterised in cultural histories as men’s clubs. Over the last two decades, feminist scholars and curators have set about vigorously challenging these assumptions. In so doing they have granted increased recognition to individual women artists and writers who were too often mentioned in dominant narratives simply as the wives, girlfriends or sisters of better-known men. In this course, students will analyse the impact of gender on women’s cultural productions and ask to what extent the new techniques and approaches they developed were characteristic of a rebellion against aesthetic and cultural conventions. While the course centres on the French context, it will emphasise the international nature of the avant-garde. And while certain individuals and texts will be selected for close discussion, the topic leaves considerable scope for original comment and research.

Teaching & Learning If taught over one term the course will consist of either a weekly two-hour seminar, or two Methods: one-hour seminars. If taught over two terms it will consist of a weekly hour-long seminar. Teaching and learning will be organised through staff-led discussion and student presentations. Each week students will be expected to undertake private study to prepare for the seminar, and they will be required to make a presentation to the seminar group during the course.

Details of teaching Students will be expected to prepare in advance for seminars using the guided reading resources on Moodle: indicated on Moodle. Handouts and powerpoint presentations from seminars will also be available as well as reading lists and recommended web resources.

The following are recommended: Key Bibliography: • Patricia Allmer, Angels of Anarchy. (Munich: Prestel, 2009). • Caws, Mary Ann, Kuenzli, Rudolf E. Kuenzli and Raaberg, Gwen, eds, Surrealism and Women. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 1991. • Whitney Chadwick, Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-representation. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998); Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. (London: Thames & Hudson, 1991). • Ruth Hemus, Dada’s Women. (London & New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). • Penelope Rosemont, Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. (London: Athlone Press, 1998). • Nadia Sawelson-Gorse, ed., Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender and Identity. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001). N.B. The required key reading for each week will be made available via Moodle.

Formative Assessment Feedback is provided through detailed comments on the set pieces of work which make & Feedback: up the coursework.

Summative Short essay: 1,500-2,000 words = 20% of overall mark Assessment: Long essay: 2,800-3,000 words = 80% of overall mark.

Deadlines: as published on Moodle.

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Optional Code: FR3121 Course Value: ½ Unit Status: French

- The course will run in Title: Montaigne Then and Now Availability: Term 2 only

Prerequisites: Successful entry into final year Recommended: Co-ordinator: Dr Timothy Chesters Course Staff Dr Timothy Chesters

This course aims: Aims: • to explore the Essais (Essays) of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), a major figure of world literature • to read Montaigne’s Essais as a window onto the political, historical and intellectual world of the European Renaissance to examine the concept of literature as experiment

Upon successful completion of the course students should be able to: Learning • Outcomes: demonstrate a thorough knowledge of a selection of Montaigne’s Essais • discuss pertinent aspects of the political, historical and intellectual contexts in which Montaigne wrote the Essais describe and evaluate contemporary some contemporary critical approaches towards Montaigne’s Essais

This course offers an in-depth study of Montaigne’s Essais (1580/1588), now widely Course considered to be one of the greatest and most influential literary works of all time. The Content: word ‘essay’ originates with Montaigne, but his essais were not essays in the modern sense of formal and ordered reflections. Rather they were try-outs (from ‘essayer’ – to try), efforts, tests, or thought experiments, in which Montaigne wandered around a topic just to see what it might yield. His range of topics is extraordinary. He writes chapters on perennial human concerns: sex, death, friendship, and the problem of writing itself. He also turns his attention to the violent and disquieting age through which he himself lived, with chapters on the recently discovered cannibals of the New World, monstrous births, witchcraft and magic, and the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). He muses on subjects of profound seriousness, such as cruelty or bereavement, but also ponders out loud the usefulness of thumbs, the dangers of pretending to be ill, or what it would be like to attend a banquet at which all the guests were called Guillaume. His sceptical good humour, restless intelligence, and sheer verve as a writer have influenced a host of later writers, including Shakespeare, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Woolf. In this course you will discover both why Montaigne’s experiment in writing feels so close to us now, but also so compellingly distant and strange. Teaching & Alternating lectures and seminars. The lectures will provide essential background; the Learning seminars will take the form of reading workshops on short passages from the Essais. Students Methods taking the course will be expected to come to each seminar thoroughly prepared to participate in discussion.

Key Texts [it is essential that students buy the text in the prescribed edition and no other]: Key Bibliography: M. de Montaigne, Essais, ed. by A. Micha, 3 volumes (Paris: Flammarion, 1969-79) [ELCS / CLC students] M. de Montaigne, Essays, trans. by D. M. Frame (London: Everyman, 2003)

Selected chapters:

Book One: ‘Au lecteur’ (‘To the Reader’), I, 8: ‘De l’oisiveté (‘On idleness’); I, 20: ‘Que philosopher c’est apprendre à mourir’ (‘That to philosophize is to learn how to die’); I, 21: ‘De la force de l’imagination’ (‘On the power of the imagination’); I, 26: ‘De l’institution des enfants’ (‘On the education of children’); I, 28: ‘De l’amitié’ (‘On friendship’); I, 30: ‘Des cannibales’ (‘On the cannibals’); I, 56: ‘Des prières’ (On prayers’)

Book Two: II, 6: ‘De l’exercitation’ (‘On practice’); II, 17: ‘De la praesumption’ (‘On presumption’); II, 30: ‘D’un enfant monstrueux’ (‘On a monstrous child’)

Book Three: III, 2: ‘Du repentir’ (‘On repenting’), III, 5: ‘Sur des vers de Virgile’ (‘On some verses of Virgil’); III, 6: ‘Des coches’ (‘On coaches’); III, 11: ‘Des boiteux’ (‘On the lame’); III, 12: ‘De la phisionomie’ (‘On physiognomy’); III, 13: ‘De l’experience’ (‘On experience’) In-course Feedback:

Assessment: The assessment will depend on whether it is taught over one term or two.

If the course is run in Term 1 (Autumn) only, the assessment will be as follows:

Oral presentation: 20% (scheduled throughout Term 1) Long essay (2800-3000 words): 80% (deadline: beginning of Term 2)

If the course is run in Term 2 (Spring) only, the assessment will be as follows:

Oral presentation: 20% (scheduled throughout Term 2) Long essay (2800-3000 words): 80% (deadline: beginning of Term 3)

If the course is run across Terms 1 and 2 (Autumn and Spring), the assessment will be as follows:

Essay 1 (2000-2500 words): 30% (deadline: beginning of Term 2) Essay 2 (2000-2500 words): 60% (deadline: beginning of Term 3) Oral presentation: 10% (scheduled throughout Terms 1 and 2)