French Content Modules (2015/16) Level 4 Modules - · PDF fileFrench Content Modules (2015/16) Level 4 Modules: ... Guy de Maupassant, ... novels relating to two key socio-political

French Content Modules (2015/16)

Level 4 Modules:

Full Module Title: Imagining France: An Introduction to French Studies

Module Code: LNLN022S4

Credits/Level: 30 Credits / Level 4

Convenor: Dr Akane Kawakami

Lecturer(s): Dr Ann Lewis, Dr Akane Kawakami, Dr Martin Shipway, Dr Damian Catani

Entrance Requirements:

No language other than English is required.

Day/Time: Monday 7.40-9.00pm (Terms 1 and 2)

Module Description:

This module aims to introduce students to key artefacts (socio-political, literary, and philosophical) from French and francophone culture up to the present day. We shall consider why these artefacts may be considered important for an understanding of what may be meant or imagined by the notion of „Frenchness‟ past and present. Moving across centuries and disciplines, from eighteenth-century philosophical fiction to twentieth-century political writings, all the material we cover is linked by its preoccupation with France‟s various definitions in opposition to notions of „foreignness‟. The module will also incorporate a number of study skills sessions (on essay-writing, commentary, bibliography and referencing).

Syllabus:

The module is taught and assessed entirely in English. Titles which appear in French in the following outline will be studied in English translation, although you are encouraged to make use of the original French texts too if you are able. You are expected, except where indicated below, to purchase the texts which are specified as primary texts, and you are expected also to have read these primary texts in advance of the relevant section of the module. All the primary texts will be available in the Library, and some secondary texts (those you are not expected to purchase) will also be available in the Library Reading Room Collection and also for electronic access via Moodle. You are not expected to purchase any of the secondary texts, which are merely suggestions for background reading.

Section 1: Term 1, Weeks 1-5: ‘Otherness’: Imagining the Outsider’s View in Eighteenth-Century France (Ann Lewis)

Eighteenth-century French writers frequently use the fictional perspective of a foreign or exotic observer to explore, defamiliarize and satirize aspects of their own culture. In this part of the course, we will focus on several key texts from this period (by some of the most celebrated writers of the Enlightenment), to examine this very particular mode of exploring „Frenchness‟.

Primary Texts:

Voltaire, „L‟Ingénu‟ (1767), in Romans et contes (GF, Garnier-Flammarion)

– English translation : „The Ingenu‟ in Candide and Other Stories, tr. Roger Pearson (Oxford World Classics, 2006)

Graffigny, Lettres d‟une Péruvienne (1747, rev. ed. 1752)

– English translation: Letters of a Peruvian Woman, tr. Jonathan Mallinson (Oxford World Classics)

Suggested Secondary Reading:

John S. Clouston, Voltaire‟s Binary Masterpiece: „L‟Ingénu‟ Reconsidered (Peter Lang, 1986)

Roger Pearson, The Fables of Reason: A Study of Voltaire‟s „Contes philosophiques‟ (Clarendon Press, 1993), relevant sections

Robin Howells, Playing Simplicity: Polemical Stupidity in the Writing of the French Enlightenment (Peter Lang, 2002), relevant sections

Janet Gurkin Altman, „A Woman‟s Place in the Enlightenment Sun: The Case of F. de Graffigny‟, Romance Quarterly, 38 (1991), 261-72

Julia Douthwaite, „Relocating the Exotic Other in Graffigny‟s Lettres d‟une Péruvienne‟, Romanic Review, 82 (1991), 456-74

Downing Thomas, „Economy and Identity in Graffigny‟s Lettres d‟une Péruvienne‟, South Central Review, 10:4 (1993), 55-72

Section 2: Term 1, Weeks 7-11: Places: Paris or the Provinces? (Akane Kawakami)

Paris and its artefacts (the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe) are often used as a symbol of France, and the country often seems to be more obviously centralised than, for instance, the UK. Yet the culture of the provinces, both the smaller towns and the countryside, are also inextricably linked to a perceived French identity. In this section we will examine texts describing

different kinds of French places, and explore the implications of these depictions for various notions of „Frenchness‟. All texts are available in English translation.

Primary texts:

Guy de Maupassant, La Parure et autres scènes de la vie parisienne (1885)

-– English translation: A Parisian Affair and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)

Alphonse Daudet, Lettres de mon moulin (1869)

–- English translation: Letters from my Windmill (Penguin Classics, 2007)

Suggested secondary reading:

Robert Alter, Imagined Cities: Urban experience and the Language of the Novel (2005)

Christopher Prendergast, Paris in the Nineteenth Century (1992)

John West-Sooby, ed., Images of the City in Nineteenth-Century France (1998)

Section 3: Term 2, Weeks 1-5: Mapping France (Martin Shipway)

In this section of the course, we look at ways in which French social, cultural and political space have been mapped since the late nineteenth century. In addition to the core texts listed below, we will use a variety of materials (to be distributed in class or via Moodle) to illustrate how the concept of France, French identities and the non-French „other‟ have been defined and articulated, whether via maps of the French „hexagone‟, through appeals to national writing, or through the myth of a colonial „greater France‟.

Primary texts

Ernest Renan, „What is a Nation?‟, extract from Homi Bhabha, ed., Nation and Narration (London: Routledge, 1990) (available in #Reading Room Collection and on Moodle)

Antoine Prost, „The Contribution of the Republican Primary School to French National Identity‟, extract from Antoine Prost, Republican Identities in War and Peace: Representations of France in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Oxford: Berg, 2002) (available in #Reading Room Collection and on Moodle)

Charles de Gaulle -- extracts from speeches, memoirs and film (to be distributed in class and/or made available on Moodle).


Benedict Anderson (2nd or 3rd ed.), Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991, 2006)

Rod Kedward, La Vie en bleu: France and the French since 1900 (London: Penguin, 2005)

Section 4, Term 2, Weeks 7-11: Conflict and the Fracturing of National Identity (Damian Catani)

These sessions examine the notion of a fractured French identity, or France divided against itself, which questions and subverts its core Republican belief in a nationally cohesive, unifying ideology. A selective exploration of cultural history and novels relating to two key socio-political conflicts brings this fractured sense of national identity into sharp relief: the first, is the Paris Commune of 1871, a breakaway and self-governing working-class faction that emerged from the ashes of the Franco-Prussian War only to be brutally crushed by the new Republican government; the second, is the First World War (1914-18), a conflict of unprecedented barbarity that led an entire generation of young Frenchmen to become profoundly disillusioned with the traditional patriotic virtues of military heroism and glory.

Primary texts (selected chapters):

Emile Zola: La Débâcle, (1892), (translated as The Downfall)

Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932), (translated as Journey to the end of the night)

John M. Merriman: Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune (Yale University Press, 2014)

Vincent Sherry (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Assessment Table:

One commentary in English (500-1000 words, 10% of overall mark) due by Reading Week of Term One.

Two essays in English (1500 words each, 35% each), one due at the start of Term 2, the other due at the start of Term 3.

One unseen in-class test (one and a half hours) in English or French (20%) to be answered in class in Term 3.

The essay questions will be available via Moodle several weeks in advance of the deadline. The essays must also be submitted via Moodle, and before the deadline, which will be clearly stated when the questions are announced.

Essential Texts:

Please see „Syllabus‟ for details of the set texts for each part of the module.

Level 5 Modules:

Full Module Title: French Cinema: History, Practice, Analysis



Convenor: Dr Michael Temple

Lecturer(s): Dr Michael Temple


n/a

Day/Time:

Monday 6-9pm (Term 2)

Module Description:

French Cinema: History, Practice, Analysis will introduce

students to the study of French cinema from its origins to the

present day. We will explore four approaches covering the four

major areas of cinema studies:

1. Structures or „What makes cinema happen?‟: economic

infrastructure, legal framework, and commercial culture

(„Business‟); influence of scientific innovation and technological

change („Technology‟);

2. People or „Who makes films?‟: the human agency in the film-

making process; artists, artisans, and entrepreneurs; the

different métiers of cinema; working communities and

professional institutions;

3. Forms or „What films are made?‟: the diversity of film

production; indigenous and international idioms; dominant and

marginal forms, popular and avant-garde tendencies; key films

that exemplify major trends and turning-points;

4. Reflections or „How is cinema perceived?‟: the range of

cinema audiences and the experience of film-going

(„Spectators‟); varieties of film-criticism and the function of

theory („Debates‟).

Films to be studied: these will vary from year to year, but we

will always study a wide range of films from different periods

and in different genres. All film material will be sub-titled for

English speakers.

Sample filmmakers: Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès, Alice

Guy (Gaumont), Ferdinand Zecca (Pathé), Louis Feuillade,

Jean Epstein, Marcel L‟Herbier, Jean Vigo, Jean Renoir, Marcel

Carné, Jacques Becker, Robert Bresson, Agnès Varda, Jean-

Luc Godard, Jean Eustache, Bertrand Blier, Chantal Akerman,

Maurice Pialat, Claire Denis, Nicolas Philibert, Abdellatif

Kechiche.

Texts to be studied: Birkbeck library is well stocked with

French cinema titles, so there will be ample written materials

(books, articles, documents) available in English as well as

French.

Sample texts:

*Richard Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town (1994)

Pierre Billard, L‟âge classique du cinéma français (1995)

C-M. Bosséno, La prochaine séance: les Français et leurs cinés

(1996)

*Colin Crisp, The Classic French Cinema 1930-1960 (1997)

Yves Darré, Histoire sociale du cinéma français (2000)

J-M Frodon, L‟âge moderne du cinéma français (1995)

*Susan Hayward, French National Cinema (1993; 2005)

J-P. Jeancolas, Histoire du cinéma français (1995)

Fabrice Montebello, Le cinéma en France (2005)

*Michael Temple & Michael Witt, The French Cinema Book

(2004; 2007)

*Alan Williams, The Republic of Images (1992)

Syllabus:

Sample timetable (NOTE: this may change, but the following is to give you an idea of the material which may be covered). All films will be studied in sub-titled versions where appropriate.

They are available commercially in the UK or in France and/or

they may be viewed on line. Students are not obliged to

purchase their own copies.

1. Short films by Lumière brothers and by Georges Méliès

made between 1895 and 1905

The invention of cinema as a new technology, a modern art

form, and a global mass entertainment industry: a train enters a

station; a rocket flies to the moon!

2. Louis Feuillade, episodes from Fantômas [title is the

name of the main character] (1913-1914) and Les Vampires

[The Vampires] (1915)

Popular fiction produced by Gaumont, one of the great French

studios that dominated world cinema up to the end of World

War One: mystery, adventure, crime and sex.

3. René Clair, Entr’acte [literally ‘Intermission’ as in a

theatre show] (1924) and Paris qui dort [literally ‘Paris

asleep’, known in English as ‘The Crazy Ray’] (1925)

Clair‟s early experimental fantasy made for an avant-garde

„happening‟ in 1920s. Followed by a marvellous sci-fi comic

feature about Paris under the spell of a mad scientist.

4. Julien Duvivier, Pépé le Moko [title is the name of the

main character] (1937)

The greatest popular star of classical French cinema, Jean

Gabin, features in this moody crime drama set in France‟s

North-African Empire.

5. Marcel Carné, Les Enfants du paradis [literally ‘The

Children of the Gods] (1945)

Considered by many the greatest French film of all time, this

Carné-Prévert collaboration made during the Occupation is a

feast of fine dialogue, superb acting and classic mise en scène.

6. Agnès Varda, Cléo de 5 à 7 [Cleo from 5 to 7] (1962)

France‟s most important woman filmmaker established her

reputation with this inventive study of a beautiful pop singer

facing up to illness and alienation.

7. François Truffaut, La Nuit américaine [Day for Night]

(1973)

One of the best films-about-film ever made, this dramatic

comedy is Truffaut‟s mid-career essay about the state of French

cinema in the early 1970s.

8. Etienne Chatiliez, La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille

[Life is a long quiet river] (1988)

This joyously cruel satire of provincial society in the 1980s

instantly became a classic of French popular culture.

9. Nicolas Philibert, Etre et avoir [literally ‘To be and to

have’] (2002)

Observational documentary about a primary school in rural

France, whose world-wide success famously led its „subjects‟ to

sue the filmmakers for compensation…

10. Rachid Bouchareb, Indigènes [Days of Glory] (2006)

Pioneer of so-called „beur‟ cinema – i.e. films made by second-

generation North African immigrants – broke through to a wider

audience with this controversial historical drama about non-

white French soldiers in World War Two.

11. Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (2007)

This witty and moving animated feature tells the story of comic

book author Satrapi‟s eventful childhood in revolutionary Iran

and her adolescent adventures in Western Europe.

Assessment Table:

Assignment Description Weighting

Essay 1 2000 words 40%

Essay 2 3000 words 60%

Full Module Title:

French Thought: from the Renaissance to Postmodernity

Module Code:

LNLN028S5


Convenor: Dr Damian Catani

Lecturer(s): Dr Damian Catani, Dr Jean Braybrook, Dr Nathalie Wourm


Students must have passed French 3 or equivalent Module will be taught in French.

Day/Time:

Tuesday 6-7.20pm (Terms 1 and 2)

Module Description:

This module aims to introduce students to key philosophical texts written in French between the Renaissance and the present day. Its objective is to guide students through some of the often intimidating terrain of French Thought, indicating how theory and philosophy has consistently impacted on French culture, literature and society. We will consider how the authors in question present ideas relating to the formation, development and care of the self, as well as the subject‟s responsibilities and constraints before the Other.

Syllabus:

Provisional outline of module week-by-week: Term 1: 7 weeks on Pascal and Montaigne 3 weeks on Foucault Term 2: 4 weeks on Deleuze and Guattari 6 weeks on Rousseau and Beauvoir

Assessment Table:

The in-class test will take place in Term 3, in Week 3 (to be confirmed) within the usual teaching time of Tuesday, 6-7.20 pm.


Written examination 1 in-class test 40%

Coursework 2 x 2000 word essays (worth 30% of the overall mark each)

60%

Essential Texts:

Primary texts from the following :

Montaigne and self-study - three editions of Essais, (1580,

1588, 1595)

Descartes and methodical doubt - Discours de la methode,

(1637)

Pascal, libertins and religious belief - 'Pensées', (1670)

Rousseau, places and emotions - Rêveries du promeneur

solitaire (1776-78)

Beauvoir, extracts from Le Deuxième sexe (1949)

Foucault, extracts from La volonté de savoir (1976)

Deleuze & Guattari, extracts from Mille Plateaux (1980)

Secondary reading Jerrold Siegel, The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century (2005) A full list of suggested secondary reading will be distributed at the start of the course

Full Module Title: Masterpieces of French Literature, from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day


Credits / Level: 30 Credits / Level 5


Lecturer(s): Dr Ann Lewis, Dr Akane Kawakami, Dr Damian Catani

Entrance

Requirements:

None

Day/Time: Wednesday 7.40-9pm (Terms 1 and 2)

Module

Description:

What is a masterpiece? Must it be influential, in and beyond

its own century? Should it be the apotheosis of its genre, or

seek to go further, bending or even breaking the rules? We

shall be asking ourselves these and other such questions

during the course of this module, which aims for both an

overview and a sampling approach to four centuries of French

literature through studying a number of key works from each

century. The texts represent all the major genres,

encompassing poetry, drama and prose fiction. Each work will

be studied within its historical context, and related to earlier

and later texts where appropriate.

The course is taught and assessed in English. Titles which

appear in French in the following outline will be studied in

French. Students with no French may follow by means of an

English translation.

Syllabus: Provisional outline:

Term 1

Week 1: Introduction (AL)

Week 2: Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro (AL)



https://puck.mda.bbk.ac.uk/bsis_staff/qs_mod.chkmod?payrc=2012/3&pmodc=LNLN026S5

Week 5: Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (AL)

Week 6: Reading Week



Week 9: Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ (AK)



Term 2:


Week 2: Genet, Les Bonnes (AK)



Week 5: Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (DC)




Week 9: Flaubert, L‟Éducation sentimentale (DC)



Assessment:

Please note that the in-class test will take place in Term 3, week 3 (to be confirmed) within the usual class time of Wednesday 7.40-9pm.


Coursework essay 1

2000 words (in English or in French)

30%

Coursework essay 2

2000 words (in English or in French)

30%

In-class test under exam conditions

One and a half hours (in English or in French)

40%

Essential Texts: Primary texts

Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro

Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal

Flaubert, L‟Éducation sentimentale

Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ in Du Côté de chez Swann

Genet, Les Bonnes


John Cruickshank (ed.), French Literature and Its

Background, vol. 2, The Seventeenth Century (1969), vol. 3,

The Eighteenth Century (1968)

Simon Davies, Laclos : „Les Liaisons dangereuses‟ (1987)

R. Niklaus, Beaumarchais : „Le Mariage de Figaro‟ (1983)

Laurent Versini, „Le Roman le plus intelligent‟ : Les Liaisons

dangereuses de Laclos (1998)

Alison Fairlie, Baudelaire : Les Fleurs du Mal (1972)

Timothy Unwin (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Flaubert

(2004)

Malcolm Bowie, Proust among the Stars (1998)

Finburgh, Lavery, Shevtsova (eds.), Jean Genet:

Performance and Politics (2006)

Pascale Gaitet, Queens and Revolutionaries: New Readings

of Jean Genet (2003)

Level 6 Modules:

Full Module Title:

La Décolonisation française

Module Code:

ARCL001H6

Credits/Level:

15 Credits / Level 6

Convenor:

Dr Martin Shipway

Lecturer(s): Dr Martin Shipway


None

Day/ Time:

Thursday, 6.00-7.20pm (Term 2)

Module Description:

We shall study France‟s colonial empire from the 1930s to the

moment of Algerian independence in 1962, examining the

major episodes of French decolonisation in Indochina, sub-

Saharan Africa and Algeria. The aims of the course are: to

examine the processes and impact of colonialism and

decolonisation in the case of the French empire; and to explore

the different approaches which may be adopted in studying

France‟s and her former colonies‟ traumatic and in many ways

still unfinished decolonisation.

The module is taught primarily in English, but essays may be

written in French or in English.

Syllabus:

Topics covered are likely to include the following:

French colonial rule and decolonisation, approaches & perspectives

Nationalist challenges to empire, 1930-1945

The French empire in the Second World War

Revolution and war in Indochina

Late colonial politics in French West & Equatorial Africa, 1944-56

Algeria: origins and development of war to 1958

Algeria from 1958: towards independence

Metropolitan perspectives and rationales of decolonisation

Assessment:


Essay 3,500 words 100%

Essential Texts:

Shipway, Martin. Decolonization and its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of the Colonial Empires (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008)

Thomas, Martin, Bob Moore & L.J. Butler. Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe‟s Imperial States, 1918-1975 (London: Hodder 2008).

Full Module Title: Mémoire en français

Module Code:

LNLN004S6


Convenor: Dr Jean Braybrook

Lecturer(s): Dr Ann Lewis (workshops) and supervisors (appointed by the module convenor)


French 5 is highly desirable.

Day/Time:

Tuesday 6-7.30pm (five workshops only, in alternate weeks in Term 1, in addition to individual supervision at other times, by arrangement).

Module Description:

Le mémoire is a critical study of a problem or phenomenon (cultural, artistic, literary, historical, political…) in the French or francophone sphere. It cannot be simply descriptive or derivative. Students should submit their topic for approval to the module convenor or to a lecturer in the June preceding the start of their module. Information about lecturers‟ interests may be found on the Departmental website. Students will need to conduct research over the summer vacation. Five workshops, attendance of which is compulsory, will be conducted in French and will aim to: (1) improve the student‟s written and oral linguistic skills, (2) present research techniques, (3) set out the conventions for presentation of research at university, (4) provide mock vivas.

Assessment:

Two copies of the Mémoire (7500 words, excluding footnotes, bibliography and any appendices), typed and comb-bound, have to be handed in. The student keeps a third copy, with the same page numbering, and brings it to the viva or oral exam. The work must usually be given to the administrators by the end of the first week of Term 3. The viva or oral generally takes place in the second half of May, with two internal examiners and one external. The external or visiting examiner is there to examine the Birkbeck tutors rather than the student. Marks for the written Mémoire (70% of the total assessment) are given on the basis of the originality of the subject, the clarity with which issues are set out, the quality of the French and the standard of presentation of the whole, including the critical apparatus. A pass mark must be obtained on the Mémoire in order for a student to pass the module as a whole. The viva (30% of the total assessment) takes place in French and lasts approximately twenty minutes. It gives students the opportunity to present their research, explain how they have organized their work, and defend the positions they have adopted. IMPORTANT NOTE: Except in special circumstances, students who fail to contact either a potential supervisor or the Module Convenor (Dr Jean Braybrook) before the end of the Summer Term may be excluded from this module.

Essential Texts:

Dictionnaire Le Petit Robert Le Robert : Dictionnaire des synonymes et nuances

Full Module Title:

Modern French Poetry

Module Code:

AREL051H6



Lecturer(s): Dr Akane Kawakami


French 4 or equivalent

Day/Time:

Thursday 6.00-7.20pm (Term 1)

Module This module aims to introduce students to nineteenth- and

Description:

twentieth-century French poetry through close reading of samples of poetry by Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Eluard. Students will learn the rules of classical versification, and then explore how it 'breaks down' – from Baudelaire through Rimbaud to Apollinaire and Eluard – into free verse.

This course will be taught primarily in French, and the primary texts will be studied in French.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction to module

Week 2: Baudelaire‟s prose poems

Week 3: Baudelaire‟s prose poems

Week 4: Rimbaud

Week 5: Rimbaud


Week 7: Apollinaire: selection from Alcools

Week 8: Apollinaire: selection from Calligrammes

Week 9: Eluard

Week 10: Eluard

Week 11: Revision

Assessment:


Essay 3,500 words 100%

Essential Texts:

Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal

Rimbaud, Poésies

Apollinaire, Alcools

Eluard, Capitale de la douleur

Full Module Title:

Molière

Module Code: AREL105H6



Lecturer(s): Dr Jean Braybrook


French 4 or equivalent. Module is taught in French.

Day/ Time: Monday 6.00-7.20 pm (Term 1)

Module Description:

This 15-credit module is designed to give students an appreciation of the comedies of Molière, one of the greatest playwrights of seventeenth-century France. It will encourage consideration not only of the texts as written entities, but of the dramas as they were and still are performed, their stage devices and language. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the reasons why Molière sometimes uses poetry and sometimes prose. They will appreciate his creation of character and sense of theatrical timing. They will also improve their French, as the course will be taught in French.

Syllabus:

Weeks 1 and 2 „L‟École des femmes‟ (1662) and „La Critique de l‟École des femmes‟ (1663). The role of Agnès, and the transition from farce to „grande comédie‟. Weeks 3 and 4 „Tartuffe‟ (1664) and the controversy it caused. Weeks 5 and 7 „Le Misanthrope‟ (1666), the bodily humours and the figure of Alceste. Week 8 „L‟Avare‟ (1668) and the use of prose. Week 9 „L‟Avare‟ (1668) and the use of humour. Week 10 „Le Malade imaginaire‟ (1673), Molière‟s last play: how has he progressed?

https://cis2.bbk.ac.uk/bsis_staff/qs_mod.chkmod?payrc=2013/4&pmodc=AREL105H6

Weeks 11 In-class commentary (test)

Assessment:


In-class test (1.5 hours)

40%

Essay 60%

Full Module Title:

Reading Text and Image in the Eighteenth-Century: Diderot and the Tableau

Module Code:

AREL004H6


Convenor: Dr Ann Lewis

Lecturer(s): Dr Ann Lewis


None

Day/Time:

Monday 6-7.20pm (Term 2)

Module Description:

The power of the image is a central preoccupation in eighteenth-century philosophy. Not only is the relationship between word and image (and the respective limitations of the verbal and visual) a key topic in the aesthetic thought of the period, but the impact of images on human sensibility (as understood at the time) was also foregrounded in a range of epistemological, moral and medical debates. This course will focus on the writings of Denis Diderot, who explored the complexities of the relationship between word and image in a range of innovative ways. We will explore Diderot‟s experimental theories of the tableau in conjunction with his attempts to put these into practice in various types of fictional, educational and artistic context (e.g. the theatre, the novel, and art criticism). This module will allow you to acquire in-depth understanding of the aesthetic thought of a single writer, and at the same time, to learn about the generic conventions of a range of different types of writing, as well as the way in which Diderot‟s notion of the tableau suggests important innovations in each of these genres.

Syllabus:

Provisional outline week-by-week: Week 1: Introduction, the visual image and theories of language, close study of extracts provided in class Week 2: The tableau in the novel: the „Éloge de Richardson‟ and La Religieuse Week 3: La Religieuse continued Week 4: The tableau in the theatre: Diderot‟s Le Fils naturel and Entretiens sur „Le Fils naturel‟ Week 5: Diderot and the theatre continued Week 6: Reading Week Week 7: Diderot and the visual arts: the Salon criticism Week 8: Diderot and the visual arts continued Week 9: Diderot and the visual arts continued Week 10: Conclusion / revision Week 11: in-class test

Assessment Table:


Coursework essay 2500 words (in English or in French)

60%

In-class test under exam conditions

One and a half hours (answer may be in English or in French)

40%

Essential Texts:

Set texts:

Diderot, La Religieuse

Diderot, „Éloge de Richardson‟

Diderot, Le fils naturel and „Entretiens sur Le fils naturel‟

Diderot, Salon de 1765 and Salon de 1767 (specific reading will be indicated in due course)

Diderot‟s Salon writings, plays and writings on the theatre are

available in one volume, in the Laffont edition: Diderot Oeuvres:

Tome IV: Esthétique-Théatre, ed. Laurent Versini (1996) which

is recommended. But any Flammarion / Folio classiques

edition would be fine.

Full Module Title:

Translation from and into French


Credits/Level: 30 Credits /Level 6


Lecturer(s): Dr Jean Braybrook and Dr Akane Kawakami


French 5 is highly desirable

Day/ Time:

Wednesday 6-7.20pm (Terms 1 and 2)

Module Description:

In this module we aim to study the theory and practice of translation from and into French, with an emphasis on practical tasks. Both literary and non-literary texts will be studied. Some poetry may be included. Assignments are given most weeks of the course. One longer translation (about 1000 words) together with brief footnotes and a commentary of 800 words (covering for instance features difficult to translate) is to be submitted at the end of Term 2.

Syllabus:

S. Hervey and I. Higgins, Thinking Translation (Routledge,

2002)

Assessment:

A three-hour examination represents 60% of the total assessment. It comprises two passages for translation, one English into French, the other French into English. Students are allowed to take a monolingual (French/French or English/English) Petit Robert-type dictionary into the examination. They should indicate on their exam paper which sort of dictionary they have used. Coursework represents the remaining 40% of the assessment. Coursework consists of a Long Translation and commentary (1000

words and 800 words), worth 25%, and In-class assessment (SIX 200-word translations, one of which is a mock examination) worth 15%.

Essential Texts:

S. Hervey and I. Higgins, Thinking Translation (2002)

Other Important Information:

You may find it helpful and amusing to read: David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? (Penguin, 2011).

Culture Modules (2015/16)

Level 4:

Full Module Title

Understanding Culture: Languages and Texts

Module Code

LNLN021S4

Credits/Level 30 credits, Level 4

Convenor: Joanne Leal

Lecturer(s): Joanne Leal, Luciana Martins, Martin Shipway


No language requirement other than English

Day/Time:

Fridays, 6.00-7.20

Module Description:

This module will provide you with an introduction to what it means to study languages and cultures. We will explore the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural nature of language and cultural study by focusing on different kinds of text – literary, filmic, historical, visual – from a variety of different cultural contexts: French-, German-, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking. You will learn about the practical and theoretical tools you need to engage with these texts and the cultural contexts which produced them and to work with these tools in your own writing.

Syllabus:

Term One

02.10.14 Introduction to Studying Languages and Cultures

JL

09.10.14 Languages, Cultures and Literature JL

16.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung / Metamorphosis) Please read the story before class: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm

JL

23.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung / Metamorphosis)

JL

30.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung / Metamorphosis)

JL

06.11.14 Reading Week

13.11.14 Languages, Cultures and Film JL

20.11.14 Watching Fassbinder (Angst essen Seele auf / Fear Eats the Soul) Please watch this film in advance of the class: it is available on DVD.

JL

27.11.14 Watching Fassbinder (Angst essen Seele auf / JL

Fear Eats the Soul)

04.12.14 Watching Almodóvar (Todo sobre mi madre / All about my mother) Please watch this film in advance of the class: it is available on DVD

JL

11.12.14 Watching Almodóvar (Todo sobre mi madre / All about my mother)

JL

Term Two

08.01.15 Languages, Cultures and History MS

15.01.15 Writing French defeat, occupation and resistance: Marc Bloch, Etrange défaite / Strange Defeat

MS

22.01.15 Remembering French defeat, occupation and resistance: Marcel Ophüls, Le chagrin et la pitié / The Sorrow and the Pity

MS

29.11.15 France and Algeria: Julien Duvivier, Pépé Le Moko ; Gillo Pontecorvo, La Bataille d‟Alger / The Battle of Algiers

MS

05.02.15 France and Algeria: Gillo Pontecorvo, La Bataille d‟Alger / The Battle of Algiers

MS

12.02.15 Reading Week

19.02.15 Visual cultures: understanding „the visual‟ Gillian Rose, „Researching with visual materials: a brief survey‟

LM

26.02.15 Visual cultures: a critical approach Gillian Rose, „Towards a critical visual methodology‟

LM

04.03.15 Self-fashioning images: Andean photographs James Scorer, „Andean self-fashioning: Martín Chambi, photography and the ruins at Machu Picchu‟

LM

11.03.15 In and out of focus: imagined modernities in Brazil Beatriz Jaguaribe and Maurício Lissovsky, „The visible and the invisibles: photography and social imaginaries in Brazil‟

LM

18.03.15 Questioning photojournalism: Sebastião Salgado‟s Latin American visions John Mraz, „Sebastião Salgado: ways of seeing Latin America‟

LM

Assessment:

1. A 500 word assessment task to be submitted by Friday November 6 2015. This is worth 20% of the mark for the module.

2. A 500 word assessment task to be submitted by Friday 8 January 2016. This is worth 20% of the mark for the module.

3. A 1,500 word essay to be submitted on Friday 15 April 2016. This is worth 30% of the mark for the module.

4. A 1,500 word essay to be submitted on Friday 13 May 2016. This is worth 30% of the mark for the module.

Essential Texts:

Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung / Metamorphosis Franz Kafka, Das Urteil / The Judgement Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Angst essen Seele auf / Fear Eats the Soul Pedro Almodóvar, Todo sobre mi madre / All About my Mother Marc Bloch, Etrange défaite / Strange Defeat Marcel Ophüls, Le chagrin et la pitié / The Sorrow and the Pity Julien Duvivier, Pépé Le Moko Gillo Pontecorvo, La Bataille d‟Alger / The Battle of Algiers Rod Kedward, La Vie en bleu: France and the French since 1900 (Penguin, 2005) Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies : An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials, 3rd edition (London : Sage, 2013), Chapters 1 and 2 James Scorer, „Andean self-fashioning: Martín Chambi, photography and the ruins at Machu Picchu‟, History of Photography 38: 4 (2014), 379-397 Beatriz Jaguaribe and Maurício Lissovsky, „The visible and the invisibles: photography and social imaginaries in Brazil‟, Public Culture 21: 1 (2009), 175-209 John Mraz, „Sebastião Salgado: ways of seeing Latin America‟, Third Text 16:1 (2002), 15-30

Levels 5 and 6:

Full Module Title The Twentieth Century: Key Themes in Comparative European History

Module Code AREL001S5/AREL056S6

Credits/Level 30 credits / Level 5 and Level 6

Convenor: Martin Shipway

Lecturer(s): Eckard Michels, Martin Shipway, tbc



Day/Time: Mondays, 6.00-7.30

Module Description:

The course is jointly taught by members from different language areas. It will cover major aspects of 20th century history by comparing and contrasting in particular Britain, Germany, France and the Iberian Peninsula, and their overseas empires. The themes we are covering are European colonialism and decolonisation (MS); cold war politics in Europe from the end of

the Second World War to the Fall of the Soviet Empire in 1989/90 (EM); and a further theme, to be announced, taught by a new member of staff.

Syllabus:

Term

One

MS Introduction

MS European colonialism and

decolonisation (weeks 2-5, 7-8)

MS

MS

MS

Reading Week

MS

MS

tbc TBC (weeks 9-11, T2, 1-3)

tbc

tbc

Term

Two

tbc

tbc

tbc

EM The Cold War: An introduction

EM The Soviet Union and the West in the

Second World War

Reading Week

EM The Outbreak of the Cold War 1945-

1948

EM The Soviet Block in Eastern Europe

from the 1950s to the 1970s

EM The Beginning of West European

Integration in the 1950s

EM East-West Détente in Europe in the

1960s and 1970s

EM The Dissolution of the Soviet Block in

the 1970s and 1980s

Assessment: Level 5: two essays of 2500 words each from a list of topics

Level 6: one essay of 2500 words from a list of topics and one independently researched essay of 4500 words, topic to be agreed with relevant tutor.

Essential Texts: Tony Judt, Post War: A History of Europe since 1945 (Oxford 2005)

Martin Shipway, Decolonisation and its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of the Colonial Empires (London 2008)

John Young, Cold War in Europe 1945-1991: A Political History (London 1997)

Please note: the following module runs at Level 5 only, and is usually available for students in their first year of study.

Full Module Title

Reading Transnational Cultures

Module Code

tbc

Credits/Level 30 credits, Level 5

Convenor: Joanne Leal

Lecturer(s): Joanne Leal, Ann Lewis, Martin Shipway, Luis Trindade



Day/Time:

Mondays, 6.00-9.00, Term Three

Module Description:

This module is designed to help you explore the ways in which culture relates to the ideas of the nation and the transnational by encouraging you to work with cultural artefacts which engage with more than one cultural context. We will ask questions like: how important/restricting it is to explore culture within a national context; what does a text need to do to be

described as transnational; can our understanding of these categories be transformed by our engagement with literary and filmic texts; what are some of the multiple ways in which a text can engage with more than one culture; are these always liberating and transformative or can they also be oppressive and reactionary; how important is language to these questions; do texts have to be monolingual or does transnationality require an engagement with more than one language? We will work together as experts in different cultural contexts to explore these ideas in relation to specific texts.

Syllabus:

Term Three

18.04.16 Introduction JL

25.04.16 France and Americanization: Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless (1960) Available on DVD: please watch before the class.

JL

02.05.16 Bank Holiday

09.05.16 Germany and Americanization: Wim Wenders, The American Friend (1977) Available on DVD: please watch before the class.

JL

16.05.16 Enlightenment perspectives (i) France and England Set text: Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques (1734) [Letters concerning the English Nation] – extracts

AL

23.05.16 Enlightenment perspectives (ii) Persia and France Set text: Montesquieu, Lettres persanes (1721 rev. ed. 1754) [Persian Letters] – extracts

AL

30.05.16 Bank holiday

06.06.16 Imagining the colonial encounter: Albert Camus, L‟étranger (1942) [The Outsider]; Le premier homme (1994) [The First Man] - extracts

MS

13.06.16 Imagining the (post)colonial encounter: Régis Wargnier, Indochine (1992); Claire Denis, White Material (2010)

MS

20.06.16 Colonialisms: Gilberto Freyre, The Portuguese and the Tropics (1961) and Peter Weiss, Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (1969) – extracts (available on Moodle)

LT

27.06.16 Emigrations: João Canijo, Ganhar a Vida (2001) and Ruben Alves, The Gilded Cage (2013) Available on DVD: please watch before the class.

LT

Assessment:

1 x 1000 word assessment task to be submitted by Monday 23 May 2016. This is worth 20% of the mark for the module. 1 x 1000 word assessment task to be submitted by Monday 13 June 2016. This is worth 20% of the mark for the module. 1 x 2500 word essay to be submitted by Monday 18 July 2016. This is worth 40% of the mark for the module.

Essential Texts: Jean-Luc Godard, À bout de souffle / Breathless (available on DVD) Wim Wenders, Der amerikanische Freund / The American Friend (available on DVD) Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies (MIT Press, 1996) Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques ou lettres anglaises (Flammarion, 1994 – or any complete edition) [Letters concerning the English Nation, Oxford World Classics, translated by Nicholas Cronk, 2009] Montesquieu, Lettres persanes (Folio classique or Flammarion editions – or any other complete edition) [Persian Letters, Oxford World Classics, translated by Margaret Mauldon, 2008] Albert Camus, L‟étranger (1942) (Preferred edition: Folio) [The Outsider, Penguin, translated by Joseph Laredo] Albert Camus, Le premier homme (Gallimard, 1994) [The First Man, Penguin, translated by Davis Hapgood] (extracts will be available on Moodle) Edward Said, Imperialism and Culture (Chatto & Windus, 1993) Régis Wargnier, Indochine (1992) (available on DVD) Claire Denis, White Material (2010) (available on DVD) Gilberto Freyre, The Portuguese and the Tropics (extracts will be available on Moodle) Peter Weiss, Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (extracts will be available on Moodle) João Canijo, Ganhar a Vida (available on DVD)

Ruben Alves, The Gilded Cage (available on DVD) Almeida, Miguel Vale de. “Tristes Luso-Tropiques: the roots and ramifications of Luso-Tropicalist discourses”, in An earth-colored sea: “race”, culture and the politics of identity in the post-colonial Portuguese-speaking world (New York: Berghahn, 2004) Pereira, Victor. “The Papers of State Power. The Passport and the Control of Mobility”, in Luís Trindade (ed.), The Making of Modern Portugal (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013)

Content modules available in 2015/6 (additional modules with cross-cultural content, available for all languages) can be viewed on this link:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/languages/current-students/undergradstudy/CultureModules2015-6.pdf



Documents

French Content Modules (2015/16) Level 4 Modules - · PDF fileFrench Content Modules (2015/16) Level 4 Modules: ... Guy de Maupassant, ... novels relating to two key socio-political