Introductory description

FR 256 (The Right in France, from the Dreyfus Affair to the Present) features on the list of modules for intermediate-year students. It builds on module FR 121 (The Story of Modern France) by developing the students’ understanding of key issues and debates in modern and contemporary French politics, and their ability to engage closely and critically with a wide range of primary and secondary material. It complements other intermediate-year modules such as FR FR 264 (French Presidents and the Media). There are, however, no prerequisites for this module, other than French language skills at A-Level or equivalent standard.

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.

This module addresses the evolving theories, practices, and influence of the right in France from the late nineteenth century to the present. It begins with a discussion of right-wing ideology and activity at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, exploring the historiographical contention surrounding the emergence of a ‘new right’. Subsequent lectures and seminars examine the development of mass politics in the twentieth century, exploring the importance of veterans, women and young people in the movements of the interwar right, and the varieties of right-wing engagement among French collaborators during the German Occupation. The module then explores the leadership of Charles de Gaulle, the evolution of the Gaullist legacy (especially during the presidencies of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy), and the development of right-wing populism from Pierre Poujade to Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen. The module concludes with a focus on the Rassemblement National and the transformation of both left and right in contemporary French politics.

Module structure

Week 1. Introduction: Defining the French Right
Seminar. Encounters with the French Right

Week 2. Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and the Dreyfus Affair
Seminar. Anti-Semitism and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle France

Week 3. Mass Politics and Right-Wing Culture in Interwar France
Seminar. Street Politics and Photography

Week 4. The Dark Years of Collaboration: 1940–45
Seminar. Pétain, Vichy, and the French

Week 5. Youth and Fascism in Mid-Century France
Seminar. Youth, War, and Utopia

Week 6. Reading Week

Week 7. De Gaulle and the Right: From Resistance to May 1968
Seminar. De Gaulle: Hero or Dictator?

Skills and Enrichment Session: Hands-on Research at Modern Records Centre: Fascism, Resistance, May '68

Week 8. Right-Wing Populism, from Poujadism to the Front National
Seminar. Forum on Populism

Week 9. The Gaullist Legacy: Chirac, Sarkozy and the French
Seminar. Interrogating the Gaullist Legacy

Week 10. The RN and the Radical Transformation of French Politics
Seminar. Beyond Right and Left?

Learning outcomes

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

• Enhance their ability, willingness and openness to engage with other cultures, appreciating their distinctive features
• Demonstrate understanding of textual, visual, and audio-visual source material at thematic, linguistic, and stylistic levels
• Enhance linguistic mastery of the target language (French), especially vocabulary and notions of style
• Offer critical analysis of a range of primary texts and engage as appropriate with scholarly methodologies and debates on related themes and questions
• Understand the development of the ideas, strategies, spaces, and supporters of the French right from the late nineteenth century to the present, and be able to contextualize this development within French political movements and ideologies
• Communicate evidence-based ideas and arguments in clear, formal, academic writing

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module

Research element

One week of the module is based at the Modern Records Centre, either for a seminar in which students work on related collections, and/or for a two-hour session in which students curate their own exhibition based on this primary material. A video of a previous exhibition by students on this module can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDkQ0c-aNZs

Students also have the option of including material from the MRC's collections in their summative work.

Interdisciplinary

The module includes close analysis of musical, literary, and audio-visual material alongside more theoretical political texts, and draws on literary and historical approaches as well as on political science.

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 develops linguistic skills through engagement with extensive primary material in the target language. It builds students' capacity to engage with aspects of French politics and culture through analysis of primary sources, as well as through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of the development of the Right in France is enhanced through lectures and seminars that engage with both Anglophone and Francophone 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 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.