Introductory description

This module aims to examine texts by four of France's greatest writers. The nineteenth century was the heyday of the novel and writers tried to convey the whole of society in their works. We will take Chateaubriand's Rene, George Sand's Indiana, Gustave Flaubert's world classic Madame Bovary, and Emile Zola's La Bête humaine, and examine them not just as literary texts but also as social documents. We will consider the impact of the Revolution, the Restoration of the monarchy and the Second Empire, the themes of Paris versus the provinces, the position of women, and class conflict. We will be able to explore the changes in French society that took place from the time of Napoleon Bonaparte to the early years of the Third Republic. The changes will be charted alongside literary developments from Romanticism to Naturalism in order to answers the following questions: what makes a bestseller? and what is a writer's relationship with the society in which he or she lives?

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.

Week 1: Chateaubriand, Rene
 The Revolution, Rene and Romanticism 1789-1830

Weeks 2 - 3: George Sand, Indiana
 Post-revolutionary society and the Restoration
 Romanticism
 The position of women

Weeks 4 -7 : Flaubert, Madame Bovary
 Paris v the provinces
 Realism
 Nineteenth-Century morals

Weeks 8 - 10: Zola, La Bête humaine
 The Second Empire
 Naturalism
 Class conflict

Week 21: Conceptual overview
 The Writer and Society
 What makes a best seller?

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate a refined knowledge of language varieties, register, genre, nuances of meaning and language use.
• Demonstrate an ability, willingness and openness to engage with French nineteenth-century culture, appreciating its distinctive features.
• Demonstrate an ability to access, read and critically analyse primary and secondary source materials in French.
• Demonstrate knowledge of aspects of French cultures, communities and societies.
• Demonstrate familiarity with the methodologies and approaches appropriate to the discipline.

Indicative reading list

Baguley, David, Napoleon III and his Régime: An Extravaganza (2000)
Brombert, Victor, The Novels of Flaubert: A Study of Themes and Techniques (1966)
Cooper, Barbara T. and Mary Donaldson-Evans, (eds.) Moving Forward, Holding Fast: The Dynamics of Nineteenth-Century French Culture (1997)
Godwin-Jones, R., Romantic Vision: The Novels of George Sand (1995)
Haavik, Kristof Haakon, In Mortal Combat : The Conflict of Life and Death in Zola's Rougon-Macquart (2000)
Heath, Stephen, Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary (1992)
Hiddleston, Janet, Indiana, Mauprat (2000)
Magraw, Roger, France 1815-1914 :The Bourgeois Century (1983)
Mitterand, Henri, Zola et le naturalisme (1986)
Pasco, Allan H., Novel Configurations : A Study of French Fiction : Stendhal, Balzac, Zola (1987)
Schor, Naomi, George Sand and Idealism (1993)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

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 modern French language will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC language modules demand critical and analytical engagement with linguistic and cultural products 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 in the target language and in English, intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, independent research skills in the target language(s) and in English, problem solving and analysis, creative and critical thinking, time management and organisation, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.