Introductory description

Why is modern France so obsessed by the past?
What do we mean by 'Frenchness'?
What are the major landmarks in the creation of modern France?
What is 'culture générale’?
These are just some of the questions we will explore on this introductory module. Examining primary texts from major periods and events in French history, the module will equip you with an understanding of the nature of modern France. We will be guided on our journey through French history using a range of sources and approaches, from the graffiti of the events of May 1968 to the prints of the French Revolution in 1789, and from tales of the ancient Gauls to films and texts which reflect France's ongoing obsession with its (often controversial) recent past. The module will provide you with the foundation to study further aspects of French and francophone culture in the later stages of your degree.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

TERM 1: PERSONAL AND NATIONAL NARRATIVES / POLITICS AND THE INDIVIDUAL

1. Introduction: France: myth, memory and Marianne!
2. Revolutionary Prints and Pamphlets: The Story of Bastille
3. Olympe de Gouges’ Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoynne and the French Revolution
4. Theory 1: Other voices: feminism in early texts; the story of Bastille after 1789
5. Foucault, Surveiller et Punir (1975, extracts): investigating liberty: the individual and the State
6. Two Frances ? The Dreyfus affair and its impact (1894 – 1906)
7. Reading week
8. De Gaulle, national narratives and their contestation (1940s; 1968)
9. Audiard, Un Héros très discret (1996). Film
10. Theory 2: Deconstructing Texts : story, history and identity in Un Héros très discret

TERM 2 : FRANCE AND THE WORLD: SELF AND OTHER

1. Chanson de Roland 1 : Borders and boundaries: self and other viewed from pre-modern France
2. Chanson de Roland 2 : binary oppositions and boundaries : gender ; religion
3. Montaigne, ‘Des Cannibales’ : The Colonial Project: ways of interrogating self and other
4. Theory 3: Modernity and its discontents. Gender and post-colonial theory as responses to Enlightenment views of self and society
5. Algeria : Soustelle, Lettre ouverte aux victimes de la colonisation (1973)
6. Reading Week
7. Condé, Un Cœur à rire et à pleurer (1999): post-colonial conflicts
8. Condé 2: Conflicts in language, culture and identity
9. Integration and Assimilation: the French Riots of 2005 and 2007
10. Abd Al Malik, Gibraltar (2006). Album.

EASTER VACATION

1. Revision workshop 1
2. Revision workshop 2

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Students will be enabled to demonstrate: 1. an ability and willingness to engage with other cultures, appreciating their distinctive features;
• 2. an ability to use the target language(s) for purposes of reading, understanding and analysing primary textual materials
• 3. an ability to make use of critical theoretical materials to support their textual and cultural analysis, both in French and in English;
• 4. an ability to present the results in their own manner but with due attention to accuracy, comprehensiveness and clarity.

Indicative reading list

Generic Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module can be found on

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of French culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of the story of modern France will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.