Unit information: Literature and Political Activism in 2014/15

Unit name	Literature and Political Activism
Unit code	FREN30071
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Raymond
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of French
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will address the ethical and aesthetic questions posed by political commitment in literature on both the left and right of the political spectrum, issues of expediency, ends and means, the pervasive importance of myth in political life and writing, the relationship between ideology and literary form whether drama, novel or poetry. Based on texts by Malraux, Sartre, Camus, and Drieu la Rochelle, with additional material from Peguy, Breton and Eluard.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit the students will have

1. a detailed knowledge of a key phase in the literature of France in the twentieth century, namely ‘littérature engagée’.
2. They will also have charted the evolution in philosophical ideas that led from the ‘pre-existentialism’ of Malraux to the more familiar existentialism of Sartre and the humanism of Camus.
3. Furthermore, they will have learned how these ideas related to the political challenges of the time and the ethical implications of that relationship

Teaching Information

Lectures and Seminars

Assessment Information

One 3000-word essay plus 2-hour exam (50%/50%)

Reading and References

André Malraux, Les Conquérants,

L’Espoir Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mouches

Le Diable et le Bon Dieu

Albert Camus, Les Justes