Introductory description

For centuries, the French have enjoyed one of the strongest senses of national identity in Europe or the world and this identity has long been reflected in French literature, widely regarded as one of the proudest artistic traditions in the history of human expression. What has become of this literary heritage in the past decade or so when French identity has been in crisis and when the novel, as a genre built for reflecting the world, has come to be seen as dated and laborious as compared to television, blogs, or online journalism?

The French were once regarded as defenders of an egalitarian Republican tradition; as world-leading thinkers, on questions bringing together self, society and language; but also, as experts in the domain of intimate psychology and sensual proponents of an adult savoir-vivre. How can France maintain its claims to liberty, equality and fraternity when a quarter of the population regularly vote for far-right parties? Has the vicious and personal nature of Islamist attacks in France fatally undermined the French Republican model? Why was a modernizing young president met with waves of furious – if sometimes inarticulate – protest from across the social spectrum? Why have covid-related hygiene measures sparked such anger and resistance in France? What becomes of the French libertine tradition in the age of #MeToo when serial male predators (like Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Gabriel Matzneff) are publicly shamed? What does it say about French national identity that some of its most famous contemporary cultural exports are writers and politicians propounding a depressing view of European cultural decline?

This module looks closely at three ‘state-of-the-nation’ novels published in France since 2015 and considers what they reveal about the multiple crises at the heart of today’s French identity: crises that might be variously interpreted as political, economic, or ethnic, or relating to developments in gender, sexuality and France’s place in the wider world. The module encourages students to develop skills of close literary analysis while also placing cultural texts within their wider socio-cultural context and reflecting on the multiple ways in which French literature continues to overspill the limits of its form in order to affect and interact with the culture at large.

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.

Part 1. Soumission (Michel Houellebecq, 2015)
a) Who is Michel Houellebecq? Houellebecq, Houellebecq criticism, the Houellebecq ‘industry’
b) Soumission and the terror attacks of January 2015
c) Soumission: reception and debate

Part 2. 404 (Sabri Louatah, 2020)
a) Sabri Louateh and Les Sauvages
b) Minority voices in contemporary French literature
c) Islamophobia in France

Part 3. Vernon Subutex (Virginie Despentes, 2015-2017)
a) Virginie Despentes, feminist
b) France and economic crisis
c) Vernon Subutex and its avatars

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate knowledge of prominent contemporary French writers, high-profile French novels and significant literary trends of the past decade
• understand important social problems and political and cultural debates in contemporary France.
• demonstrate skills in the close reading of literary texts
• read literary texts for evidence and understanding of contextual social movements
• appreciate the role of literature in French cultural life.
• construct a compelling written argument about literary texts based on close analysis and secondary research.

Indicative reading list

Peter Boxall, Twenty-First Century Fiction: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, 2013), 278pp.
Johan Faerber, Après la littérature: Écrire le contemporain (PUF, 2018), 264pp.
Alexandre Gefen, Réparer le monde: La littérature française face au XXIe siècle (José Corti, 2017), 400pp.
Agathe Novak-Lechevalier, Houellebecq (Cahiers de L’Herne, 2017), 378pp.
Lionel Ruffel, Brouhaha: Le mondes du contemporain (Verdier, 2016), 217pp.
Dominique Viart and Bruno Vercier, La Littérature française au présent: Héritages, modernité, mutations (Bordas, 2008).
Russell Williams, Pathos, Poetry and Politics in Michel Houellebecq’s Fiction (Brill, 2020), 299pp.

Research element

Students will be required to identify, access, read and understand existing critical literature on the primary literary texts as well as on the wider literary field in France and on key aspects of the broadly understood social and political crisis in contemporary France. Assessment will test students' ability to synthesize existing research findings and to identify gaps in this research in order to draw their own original conclusions.

Interdisciplinary

Modules in SMLC frequently transcend disciplinary boundaries. Students employ one or more of textual analysis, sociological enquiry, discourse analysis, critical theory, archival research and many more skills. This module is interdisciplinary through its requirement for students to combine skills of close literary analysis with contextualizing research in politics, sociology, gender studies, etc.

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 contemporary French literature 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 cultural artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop skills in the following: 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.