Unit name | France and the Great War: A Cultural and Political History |
---|---|
Unit code | FREN20055 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Hassett |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of French |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This course explores the multi-faceted nature of France’s participation in the Great War. Over the course of twelve thematic lectures, students will be introduced to and engage with the different aspects that shaped the wartime experience of French citizens and subjects on the frontlines and the Home Front. In particular, the course stresses those often overlooked elements of France’s participation in the Great War by examining in detail the contribution made by women, colonial soldiers, trade unions and religious organisations to the war effort. It also considers the many legacies, cultural and political, of the war by engaging with the postwar experience of veterans, postwar cultures of commemoration and the art produced during and immediately after the conflict. Through a variety of primary sources, textual, visual, audio-visual and material culture, students will gain an in-depth knowledge of the transformative effect of the ‘total mobilisation’ of French society during the war.
By the end of the unit, students will demonstrate:
A mixture of ‘open’ lectures and seminars with student participation in both formats.
2 hours per week: 1 lecture, 1 seminar
One 2000-word essay (50%) and one 2-hour exam testing ILO’s 1-4.
Audoin-Rouzeau, Stéphane and Becker, Annette, 14-18, retrouver la Guerre, (Gallimard, Paris, 2003)
State, Society and Mobilisation in Europe during the First World War, (ed.) Horne, John, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002), Chapters 1, 3, 5, 9 and 12.
Winter, Jay, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History, (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1995).