| Unit name | Political Cultures of Early Twentieth-Century France |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30044 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Hurcombe |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
FREN20001 French Language or equivalent. |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit examines a particularly turbulent period of French history which witnessed not only two world wars, but also social and political challenges to the French state. It studies the interaction of a wide range of cultural forms and media with the political, considering how the latter is communicated in visual cultures, literature, and print media in early twentieth-century France. By studying a range of themes, it considers how cultural artefacts reflect, but also shape the political, whether through direct or indirect engagement. In so doing, it seeks to understand how the political was experienced not only as a set of ideas or principles enacted upon society through legislation, party politics and policy, but a cultural phenomenon that permeated human exchange and altered perceptions, thinking and behaviour. Themes studied may include nationalism and the war culture; gender representation and relations; sport; working-class culture and the Popular Front; existentialism and engagement. The unit aims to:
a) Develop students’ knowledge of what constitutes political culture and of a range of political cultural expressions from the era;
b) Develop students’ knowledge and use of a range of cultural and political theories through which to interpret such expressions;
c) Refine students’ knowledge of the political, social and cultural context of the era;
d) Expand their understanding of the multiple ways in which the social and the political intersect and are expressed culturally;
Allow students to undertake independent research into an aspect of early twentieth-century political culture
By the end of the unit, students will be able to:
(a) demonstrate their knowledge of what constitutes political culture and of a range of political cultural expressions from early twentieth-century France in a variety of ways and to an advanced standard: orally, for seminar presentations and discussion; and in writing through extended research for the coursework essays;
(b) deploy an appropriate range of cultural and political theories through which to interpret such cultural expressions;
(c) demonstrate an advanced understanding of the social and political context in which these cultural expressions occur and with which they engage.
(d) articulate an advanced understanding of the interaction of the social, the political and the cultural in early twentieth-century France;
(e) demonstrate an advanced understanding of the French language by engaging in detailed analysis of French prose and film through close reading/sequence analysis and extensive secondary reading in the language.
The unit will be taught through a combination of tutor- and student-led seminars (1 x 2hr slot weekly across 11 weeks). Additional material will be made available to students via Blackboard.
Summative:
2 x 3000 word essay (50% each), the first of which must be written in English, the second in French. Essay 1 will test ILOs a-d. No essay titles will be set for essay 2; titles will be agreed between the tutor and individual students and the essay will test ILOS a-e.
Formative: student presentation (delivered in seminar) testing ILOs a-d.
A selection of national daily papers and weekly reviews (available at www.gallica.fr)
Le crime de Monsieur Lange (dir. Jean Renoir, 1936)
Camus, Albert, Le mythe de Sisyphe (Paris: Gallimard)
Sartre, Jean-Paul, L’existentialisme est un humanisme (Paris: Gallimard)
