Unit information: Intellectuals and the Media in France in 2020/21

Unit name	Intellectuals and the Media in France
Unit code	FREN30108
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Paul Earlie
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of French
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The figure of the Gauloises-smoking, coffee-guzzling, aphorism-spouting intellectual is one of the most persistent images projected onto France from abroad. Yet beyond such clichés, intellectuals have played an undeniably vital role in shaping public discourse in France, from Emile Zola’s passionate dreyfusisme to Simone de Beauvoir’s drive for women’s rights and Michel Foucault’s work to improve conditions in French prisons.

In a time of populism and the apparent irrelevance of the public intellectual, this unit begins by exploring the origins of the figure of the intellectuel engagé in the nineteenth century. It examines the flourishing of French intellectual life in the second half of the twentieth century—a time when la French Theory became a global media phenomenon—before turning to the alleged decline of the intellectual in France in recent decades.

In exploring these questions, we will trace the crucial yet shifting role of the media in transforming French thinkers into public intellectuals. We will consider a range of media formats—print newspapers, radio and television talk shows in addition to more recent developments such as personal websites, blogs and Twitter—used by French writers and philosophers to communicate with their reading publics. Particular attention will be paid to how thinkers such as Emile Zola, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Derrida, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Eric Zemmour have used and been used in turn by the mass media. Part of the course will therefore look at the role of the media in fuelling public controversies such as the Dreyfus and Sokal Affairs, the continual polemics surrounding the work of Michel Houellebecq, and the Amazon.fr-topping success of Eric Zemmour’s dystopian vision of France in Le suicide français (2014).

In addition to developing skills in analysing the specific rhetorical structure of a range of media formats, students will learn how to relate the particular media and genres chosen by writers to the sociological, political, and technological transformations that have accompanied the development of the media in France, from the magazine to the pulp paperback to the important role of analogue television programmes such as Bernard Pivot’s Apostrophes and the digital revolution represented by the site d’auteur.

This unit will appeal to students interested in pursuing careers in media and there will be ample opportunity for comparative analysis of the development of media in France and the UK. It will also be of interest to those interested in contemporary intellectual life in France and in the traditions that underpin it.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of the evolution of the figure of the intellectual in France and different media forms since the nineteenth century, and of the key cultural, historical, and political roles they have played in shaping French public discourse;
2. analyse and compare the rhetorical structures of different media formats;
3. relate the particular media and genres chosen by writers to the sociological, political, and technological transformations that have accompanied the development of the media in France;
4. communicate complex ideas to a general audience and sensitivity to the medium in which these ideas are communicated;
5. develop presentational skills as part of a joint project.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities, including seminars, lectures, and collaborative as well as self-directed learning opportunities supported by tutor consultation.

Assessment Information

1 x 1500-word blog in English or French (25%). Testing ILOs 4-5.

Prospective students can consult examples of previous blog posts:

https://intellectualsandthemedia.org//intellectualsandthemedia.org

1 x 3500-word essay, in English or French (75%). Testing ILOs 1-3.

Reading and References

A digital dossier of written, audio, and visual material will be made available on Blackboard.

Fabrice d'Almeida, Histoire des médias en France' : 'de la Grande Guerre à nos jours (Paris: Flammarion, 2010).

François Cusset, French Theory'. 'Foucault', 'Derrida', 'Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux Etats'-'Unis (Paris: La Découverte, 2005).

David Drake, Intellectuals and Politics in Post'-'War France (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

Sudhir Hazareesingh, How the French Think': 'An Affectionate Portrait of an Intellectual People (London: Penguin, 2016).

Raymond Kuhn, The Media in Contemporary France (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2011).