Unit name | Paris 1857-1897 |
---|---|
Unit code | FREN20041 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Harrow |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of French |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit explores how writers (Baudelaire, Zola, Maupassant) and visual artists (Manet, Caillebotte, Monet, Pissarro) constructed distinctive visions of modern life following Haussmann's controversial redesign of Paris in the 1850s and 1860s. Focusing on the interrelated topics of individuality, work, leisure, gender, class, politics and urban space, we ask how modernity in its material, cultural and psychic effects translates as a style itself singularly modern - fluid, fractured, and multi-perspectival. This unit aims to provide students with the historical, political and theoretical background and critical vocabulary necessary to make an informed reading of selected later-nineteenth-century texts in French, and assess critically related visual material. Students will develop practices for 'reading' both textual and visual material, and gain an understanding of the problems associated with the act of reading across genres (narrative, poetry) and across media (painting, photography).
Aims:
Successful students will:
2 X 1hr slots weekly.
A written assignment of 2000 words and a 2 hour examination (50% each)
Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal
Zola, Thérèse Raquin (and Carné film version)
Zola, Nana
Maupasssant, Bel-Ami
Extracts from Benjamin, The Arcades Project.