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 (sociopolitical, 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, GarnierFlammarion)
– 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:
Provinces? (Akane Kawakami)
Places: Paris or the
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 NineteenthCentury France (1998)
Section 3: Term 2, Weeks 1-5:
Shipway)
Mapping France (Martin
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).
Suggested secondary reading:
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
(translated as Journey to the end of the night)
(1932),
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
Module Code:
LNLN027S5
Credits/Level:
30 Credits / Level 5
Convenor:
Dr Michael Temple
Lecturer(s):
Dr Michael Temple
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/Time:
n/a
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:
Monday 6-9pm (Term 2)
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 filmmaking 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, JeanLuc 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 secondgeneration North African immigrants – broke through to a wider
audience with this controversial historical drama about nonwhite 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
Essay 1
Essay 2
Description
2000 words
3000 words
Weighting
40%
60%
Full Module Title:
French Thought: from the Renaissance to Postmodernity
Module Code:
LNLN028S5
Credits/Level:
30 Credits / Level 5
Convenor:
Dr Damian Catani
Lecturer(s):
Dr Damian Catani, Dr Jean Braybrook, Dr Nathalie Wourm
Entrance
Requirements:
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.
Provisional outline of module week-by-week:
Syllabus:
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:
Assignment
Written examination
Coursework
Description
Weighting
1 in-class test 40%
2 x 2000
60%
word essays
(worth 30% of
the overall
mark each)
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.
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
Module Code:
LNLN026S5
Credits / Level:
30 Credits / Level 5
Convenor:
Dr Akane Kawakami
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)
Week 3: Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro (AL)
Week 4: Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro (AL)
Week 5: Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (AL)
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (AL)
Week 8: Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (AL)
Week 9: Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ (AK)
Week 10: Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ (AK)
Week 11: Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ (AK)
Term 2:
Week 1: Proust, „Un Amour de Swann‟ (AK)
Week 2: Genet, Les Bonnes (AK)
Week 3: Genet, Les Bonnes (AK)
Week 4: Genet, Les Bonnes (AK)
Week 5: Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (DC)
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (DC)
Week 8: Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (DC)
Week 9: Flaubert, L‟Éducation sentimentale (DC)
Week 10: Flaubert, L‟Éducation sentimentale (DC)
Week 11: Flaubert, L‟Éducation sentimentale (DC)
Assessment:
Assignment
Description
Weighting
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%
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.
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
Suggested secondary reading:
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
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/ Time:
None
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, subSaharan 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.
Thursday, 6.00-7.20pm (Term 2)
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:
Assignment
Essay
Description
3,500 words
Weighting
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
Credits/Level:
30 Credits / Level 6
Convenor:
Dr Jean Braybrook
Lecturer(s):
Dr Ann Lewis (workshops) and supervisors (appointed by the
module convenor)
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/Time:
French 5 is highly desirable.
Module
Description:
Tuesday 6-7.30pm (five workshops only, in alternate weeks in
Term 1, in addition to individual supervision at other times, by
arrangement).
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.
Essential Texts:
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.
Dictionnaire Le Petit Robert
Le Robert : Dictionnaire des synonymes et nuances
Full Module Title:
Modern French Poetry
Module Code:
AREL051H6
Credits/Level:
15 Credits / Level 6
Convenor:
Dr Akane Kawakami
Lecturer(s):
Dr Akane Kawakami
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/Time:
French 4 or equivalent
Module
This module aims to introduce students to nineteenth- and
Thursday 6.00-7.20pm (Term 1)
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 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Apollinaire: selection from Alcools
Week 8: Apollinaire: selection from Calligrammes
Week 9: Eluard
Week 10: Eluard
Week 11: Revision
Assessment:
Assignment
Essay
Essential Texts:
Description
3,500 words
Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal
Rimbaud, Poésies
Apollinaire, Alcools
Eluard, Capitale de la douleur
Weighting
100%
Full Module Title:
Molière
Module Code:
AREL105H6
Credits/Level:
15 Credits / Level 6
Convenor:
Dr Jean Braybrook
Lecturer(s):
Dr Jean Braybrook
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/ Time:
French 4 or equivalent. Module is taught in French.
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.
Monday 6.00-7.20 pm (Term 1)
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?
Weeks 11
In-class commentary (test)
Assessment:
Assignment
In-class test (1.5
hours)
Essay
Description
Weighting
40%
60%
Full Module Title:
Reading Text and Image in the Eighteenth-Century: Diderot
and the Tableau
Module Code:
AREL004H6
Credits/Level:
15 Credits / Level 6
Convenor:
Dr Ann Lewis
Lecturer(s):
Dr Ann Lewis
Entrance
Requirements:
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:
Assignment
Coursework essay
In-class test under
exam conditions
Essential Texts:
Description
2500 words
(in English or
in French)
One and a
half hours
(answer may
be in English
or in French)
Weighting
60%
40%
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
Module Code:
LNLN005S6
Credits/Level:
30 Credits /Level 6
Convenor:
Dr Jean Braybrook
Lecturer(s):
Dr Jean Braybrook and Dr Akane Kawakami
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/ Time:
French 5 is highly desirable
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.
Wednesday 6-7.20pm (Terms 1 and 2)
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
Convenor:
Lecturer(s):
Entrance
Requirements
:
Day/Time:
30 credits, Level 4
Joanne Leal
Joanne Leal, Luciana Martins, Martin Shipway
No language requirement other than English
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.
Term
One
02.10.14 Introduction to Studying Languages and
JL
Cultures
09.10.14 Languages, Cultures and Literature
JL
16.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung /
JL
Metamorphosis)
Please read the story before class:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200h/5200-h.htm
23.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung /
JL
Metamorphosis)
30.10.14 Reading Kafka (Die Verwandlung /
JL
Metamorphosis)
06.11.14 Reading Week
13.11.14 Languages, Cultures and Film
JL
20.11.14 Watching Fassbinder (Angst essen Seele auf /
JL
Fear Eats the Soul)
Please watch this film in advance of the class: it
is available on DVD.
27.11.14 Watching Fassbinder (Angst essen Seele auf /
JL
Syllabus:
Fridays, 6.00-7.20
Assessment:
Fear Eats the Soul)
04.12.14 Watching Almodóvar (Todo sobre mi madre / All JL
about my mother)
Please watch this film in advance of the class: it
is available on DVD
11.12.14 Watching Almodóvar (Todo sobre mi madre / All JL
about my mother)
Term
Two
08.01.15 Languages, Cultures and History
MS
15.01.15 Writing French defeat, occupation and
MS
resistance: Marc Bloch, Etrange défaite /
Strange Defeat
22.01.15 Remembering French defeat, occupation and
MS
resistance: Marcel Ophüls, Le chagrin et la pitié /
The Sorrow and the Pity
29.11.15 France and Algeria: Julien Duvivier, Pépé Le
MS
Moko ; Gillo Pontecorvo, La Bataille d‟Alger /
The Battle of Algiers
05.02.15 France and Algeria: Gillo Pontecorvo, La Bataille MS
d‟Alger / The Battle of Algiers
12.02.15 Reading Week
19.02.15 Visual cultures: understanding „the visual‟
LM
Gillian Rose, „Researching with visual materials:
a brief survey‟
26.02.15 Visual cultures: a critical approach
LM
Gillian Rose, „Towards a critical visual
methodology‟
04.03.15 Self-fashioning images: Andean photographs
LM
James Scorer, „Andean self-fashioning: Martín
Chambi, photography and the ruins at Machu
Picchu‟
11.03.15 In and out of focus: imagined modernities in
LM
Brazil
Beatriz Jaguaribe and Maurício Lissovsky, „The
visible and the invisibles: photography and social
imaginaries in Brazil‟
18.03.15 Questioning photojournalism: Sebastião
LM
Salgado‟s Latin American visions
John Mraz, „Sebastião Salgado: ways of seeing
Latin America‟
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.
Essential
Texts:
4. A 1,500 word essay to be submitted on Friday 13 May
2016. This is worth 30% of the mark for the module.
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
Entrance
Requirements:
No language requirement other than English
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 19451948
Assessment:
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
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
Convenor:
Lecturer(s):
Entrance
Requirements:
Day/Time:
30 credits, Level 5
Joanne Leal
Joanne Leal, Ann Lewis, Martin Shipway, Luis Trindade
No language requirement other than English
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
Mondays, 6.00-9.00, Term Three
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
25.04.16
02.05.16
09.05.16
16.05.16
23.05.16
30.05.16
06.06.16
13.06.16
20.06.16
Introduction
France and Americanization: Jean-Luc
Godard, Breathless (1960)
Available on DVD: please watch before
the class.
Bank Holiday
Germany and Americanization: Wim
Wenders, The American Friend (1977)
Available on DVD: please watch before
the class.
Enlightenment perspectives (i) France
and England
Set text: Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques
(1734) [Letters concerning the English
Nation] – extracts
Enlightenment perspectives (ii) Persia
and France
Set text: Montesquieu, Lettres persanes
(1721 rev. ed. 1754) [Persian Letters] –
extracts
Bank holiday
Imagining the colonial encounter: Albert
Camus, L‟étranger (1942) [The
Outsider]; Le premier homme (1994)
[The First Man] - extracts
Imagining the (post)colonial encounter:
Régis Wargnier, Indochine (1992);
Claire Denis, White Material (2010)
Colonialisms: Gilberto Freyre, The
Portuguese and the Tropics (1961) and
Peter Weiss, Song of the Lusitanian
Bogey (1969) – extracts (available on
Moodle)
JL
JL
JL
AL
AL
MS
MS
LT
Emigrations: João Canijo, Ganhar a
LT
Vida (2001) and Ruben Alves, The
Gilded Cage (2013) Available on DVD:
please watch before the class.
1 x 1000 word assessment task to be submitted by Monday 23
May 2016. This is worth 20% of the mark for the module.
27.06.16
Assessment:
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 earthcolored 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/currentstudents/undergradstudy/CultureModules2015-6.pdf