Introduction to art, literature, film and linguistics

Introduction to art, literature, film and linguistics

Module convenor - Dr Dominique Jeannerod

This module introduces French postwar Film Noir. It will contextualize this cultural production within historical circumstances and trends of the period, such as American influences on French Culture, Existentialism, and study its evolution. Aesthetics of the ‘Noir’ genre will be studied through a variety of Films. Among the themes discussed will feature Depiction of the City, Slang (‘argot’), Modern Morals and Social Criticism.

Module convenor - Dr Nigel Harkness

This module aims to make students aware of the ways in which aspects of French society, thought, literature and cinema have been shaped by a questioning of gender. The course begins with extracts from Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal work on the position of women (Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949). Against this background, we will consider examples of ‘images of men’ and ‘images of women’ in novels and films during this period. We will analyse the ways in which directors and writers have depicted masculinity and femininity, and compare these with the representation of gender identities in a short text from the nineteenth century, a period during which current gender roles were defined.

Module convenor - Professor Janice Carruthers

This module will explore the different linguistic varieties which constitute what we know as contemporary French. In spite of the prestige of so-called ‘standard French’, contemporary French as it is actually practised by speakers is far from being a ‘fixed’ structure. It is, rather, an extremely rich device, showing variation in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary according to a host of factors such as speakers’ regional origins, socio-economic status, age, gender, ethnic origin etc, as well as the context in which it is used (eg oral versus written French, journalistic French etc). A substantial section of the module will look at minority languages in France, particulary at their socio-linguistic situation, including their current and future role in the linguistic geography of France. We will use recordings and transcriptions of contemporary French data throughout the course.

Module convenor - Dr Peter Tame

The course examines the foundations of contemporary French society as reflected in the literature of the twentieth century. The major currents of thought, movements and ideologies are of particular interest. For example: The French Republics (the Third to the Fifth): crises and scandals; Political ideologies: Communism and Fascism; Socialism and capitalism; wars and revolutions: their effect on individuals, groups and nations; France in Europe; Contemporary philosophical and literary movements; industrialisation and its effect on people in society; Economic growth and commercial prosperity.

Module convenor - Dr Maeve McCusker

One of the most remarkable literary developments of the late twentieth-century has been the proliferation of autobiographical narratives, and the increasing centrality of autobiography in contemporary critical debate. This course will introduce students to the genre of autobiography, and will examine the motivations – both individual and historical – for autobiographical writing. We will focus in particular on three key authors, whose backgrounds (Franco-Russian, French Caribbean, Jewish), as well as their preoccupations, reflect something of the diversity and dynamism of the genre. We will explore the renewal of a previously ‘unrespectable’ genre, its versatility, and the range of experimental practices adopted by these writers in their attempts to grapple with memory, language and identity.

Module convenor - Dr Ros Silvester

From the late 1980s, writers in France have not claimed, generally, to be part of any specific literary movement, but a number of them tend to draw on history and myths or legends. This course highlights the work of four such artists, through three short books and one film. They are involved in a process of recreating the human subject, usually taking the form of the main character or narrator who is a figure resurrected from a significant period in history. All the works blur the boundary between reality and the imagination: factual information from documents, official records, archive material and other verifiable sources appear alongside fictional elements and literary representations of memory. By examining the uncertainties of just what constitutes the real in this selection of recent works, we are introduced to some important, contemporary French writers who are redefining conventional notions of the genres of fiction and non-fiction.

Module convenor - Dr John Lewis

The sixteenth century in Europe was a period of monumental change in all areas of human activity: out of that change emerged our modern ideas on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, law, the visual arts and literature. Central to the period are figures such as Copernicus, Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Luther, Calvin, Thomas More and Shakespeare. From the revival of interest in all things classical during the early Renaissance to the scientific scepticism of the later years, France stood at the crossroads of European cultural change. What happened in France was also crucial to the development and reception of the Continental Reformation, which began in Germany with Martin Luther but which reached theological maturity in France (and French-speaking Switzerland) through the work of John Calvin. The sixteenth century is a period of dynamic change, which altered the cultural, scientific and religious complexion of Europe for ever. For this module no previous knowledge of the classical world is necessary. The module will be of interest to those with an interest in: literary and cultural history, theology, history of science and pseudo-science (astrology, alchemy), bibliography, history of art, political theory.

Module convenor - Dr Claire Moran

This interdisciplinary course will look at one of the most important literary and artistic movements in nineteenth-century France and Belgium. Symbolist art and literature was concerned with mystery, myth and above all, imagination and dream. Texts by writers such as Baudelaire and Maeterlinck will be discussed alongside images by painters such as Moreau and Gauguin. Themes such as the femme fatale, the animal world, exoticism and voyage will be discussed, as will the power of art and literature to represent and communicate internal and external realities. The magical worlds created by these artists and writers will be considered against the background of the social and political upheavals of the nineteenth century.

Module convenor - Professor Margaret Topping

The Orient has always been an enchanted space for the West, a space which is at once seductive and disorienting, even, at times, threatening. It is also the inverted image of the West - strange and exotic in the eyes of the Westerner who turns his fascinated gaze towards the East and sees in it everything that departs from the ‘norm’. This broad geographical area has been represented in a variety of ways by writers, painters and photographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in France: from a fantasized and eroticized escape from Western morals and conventions to an ideological battleground on which the effects of globalization are stripping the Orient of its otherness. The module will examine a selection of these textual and visual representations dating from the middle of the 19th century to the present day.

Module convenor - Dr Maeve McCusker

In contrast to the general move towards independence which characterised the French colonies from the 1960s onwards, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe voted in 1946 to become French départements. Haiti, on the other hand, became the first Black republic of the New World in 1804. Writers from these islands have long been interested in how best to express their complex identity, engaging with issues such as the trauma of slavery, the representation of history, the linguistic conflict between French and Creole, the effects of diaspora and migration, the role of race and gender. This course will focus on some of the most important texts to have emerged from Martinique, Guadeloupe and Haiti, looking in particular at how these work reflect the complex mix of identities in the French-speaking Caribbean. The set texts will be supplemented by a range of historical and sociological materials.

Module convenor - Dr Ros Silvester

The course focuses on an emerging field of Francophone Studies interested in Chinese-born artists and their use of French as the medium for their works. Following both the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-76) and the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, a number of Chinese artists have emigrated to French-speaking countries and produced a range of artistic creations – novels, plays, poetry, paintings, calligraphy, films, essays. The historical, social and cultural backgrounds to these significant events provide the context and often the subject matter of the diverse works to be studied. These reveal a unique perspective on the themes of migration, exile and identity, while raising questions about language, translation and minority literature. Situated between two cultures, these works are also considered in the light of East-West power relations, notably relating to theories in Orientalism and Chinese overseas writing.

Module convenor - Professor Margaret Topping

Why do we travel? Is it to escape from, or to travel to, a particular location? Does it mean approaching a distant place or can a stroll to the bottom of the garden be equally regarded as travel? How should we encounter, and how can we adequately represent, our cultural Other? And to what extent is this representation of the Other also a representation of the Self? These are some of the questions that have preoccupied contemporary French and francophone travel writers, many of whom have challenged the reduction of travel to space alone, proposing instead that travel is, above all, an idea or a state of mind: even the most familiar of environments can become exotic if approached with fresh eyes. Contemporary travel writers have also engaged with questions such as the mechanization and speed of the modern tourist experience, as well as the impact of mass media tools or globalization as forces that risk reducing cultural difference. In order to examine these literary, ideological and cultural issues, the module will focus on a selection of contemporary French and francophone travel narratives, both literary and visual.

Module convenor - Dr Nigel Harkness

Do women write differently from men? If so, what might be the distinguishing features of their writing? Do they deal with different issues? How do they represent themselves? their bodies? their emotions? How do they confront the roles society offers them — those of the lover, the wife, the mother? How do they subvert patriarchal order through their writings? Does the presence of a woman author behind the text automatically ensure its feminist credentials? In the context of the post-war women’s movement both in Europe and in America, these questions have increasingly been asked by literary critics. This course aims to analyse issues such as these through the study of a number of texts by post-war women authors, and to situate them in the historical context of women’s writing from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Module convenor - Dr Claire Moran

What do we mean by the term modern? This inter-disciplinary course serves as an introduction to the cultural history of Modernism. We will see how the beginnings of the modern world in which we live may in fact easily be traced to late 19th-century Paris. We will also see how art, literature and architecture went through many different transitions in reaction to a rapidly changing society, thereby creating not just one Modernism, but many. Drawing upon critical discourse, texts and works of art characteristic of a range of movements including Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism will be studied from the perspective of contemporary and current debates on Modernism as an aesthetic principle and artistic movement.

Module convenor - Dr John Lewis

François Rabelais (1475?-1552) was a learned doctor and lawyer: the nearest equivalent to Leonardo da Vinci which France produced. He was also the first French writer of true comic genius. Superficially his stories of the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua continue a humorous French folk tradition, yet under the surface his writing contains savage satire of the political, literary and religious events of the French Renaissance. His four authentic Chronicles contain a picture of the Renaissance in miniature: enthusiasm for a revival of the classical past, invective against the abuses current in the Church, interest in contemporary scientific, anatomical and geographical discovery, all transmitted to the reader in a boisterous, sometimes bawdy, often irreverent cascade of linguistic invention. Rabelais’s comedy has serious moral and religious implications: he is not the obscene iconoclast of literary tradition, but his work is marked above all by a ‘joie de vivre’ founded on the conviction that laughter is a truly therapeutic human experience.

Module convenor - Dr Peter Tame

This course examines the depiction of war (World War 1 and World War II) in contemporary French fiction. The novels are studied as fictional representations of people, events, and movements in the crises and the trauma of conflict and war. In particular, the behaviour of people during times of stress and the influence of political ideologies on them are discussed and analysed. For example, the diverse reactions of the French to the experience of Occupation by the Germans (1940-1944) constitute an important feature in this course. Also included is study of the way in which these experiences contributed to forming the French nation and, to a certain extent, the Europe of today.

Module convenor - Professor Janice Carruthers

This module will look at the linguistic structure of Modern French, concentrating on aspects of its grammar and lexis. The focus will be on problematic and controversial issues in Modern French. The main topics will include the impact on French of linguistic borrowing, the creation of new words, the evolution of the tense system of Modern French, and developments in contemporary French word order. In a number of instances, we shall look at contemporary structures in the light of the history of the language. The emphasis throughout the course will be on evaluating different theoretical and critical approaches to the linguistic analysis of French.