Course description
Programme description
- Unique range of modules across all periods of French and Francophone literature.
- Modules taught by established specialists in a department with a lively research and postgraduate culture.
- Particular strengths in literary and critical theory and medieval French and Occitan literature.
The programme is centred around a core module in literary and critical theory. Optional modules reflecting the research interests of staff ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day (including modern French thought and Francophone literature) are offered. The degree programme comprises:
Core module on research methodology and critical theory and optional modules which may include: Subjectivity/Intersubjectivity in Old French Literature; Medieval Occitan; Christine de Pizan; Topics in 17th-century Rhetoric & Poetics: A Libertine Poetics?; Civility & Discord in the French Wars of Religion; The French Novel 1750-1800; Painters & Writers: the Image of the Artist in 19th century French Literature; Avant-Gardes of the 1920s & 1930s; Contemporary French Women's Writing; French Psychoanalytic Writing since 1945; Literature & Culture in Second-Empire France; Contemporary Francophone Writing; 'Life' & 'Living' in Recent French Thought; Dissertation.
Programme format and assessment
Core module and optional modules, assessed by extended essay plus a compulsory dissertation of approximately 10,000 words.
Programme modules for MA French Literature & Culture
Contemporary Women's Writing
The module aims to introduce students to a range of leading contemporary French women writers through a study of their novels, with the primary focus on Beur women's writing. Through a close analysis of the texts themselves, students will examine recurrent themes and forms in recent women's writing.
Desiring Obscure Objects: The Avant-Garde in France in the 1920s and 1930s
The module aims to develop a detailed knowledge of the aesthetic and intellectual texts and contexts of the avant-gardes of the 1920s and 30s in France, as well a critical awareness of the concept of the avant-garde and its variations. It aims to develop an understanding of the implications of iconic and textual manipulation, and of how the limits of visual and textual sense may be transgressed. It aims to stress the interdisciplinary nature of such a study, emphasising the interpenetration of visual-aesthetic and purely literary contexts. It aims further to develop a knowledge and an understanding of contemporary critical revisions of these debates. It aims to develop the methodological and critical skills pertinent to the reading, analysis and conceptualisation of complex iconic and discursive texts, as well as of how the two may interact.
Francophone Literatures
The module will provide a fairly comprehensive overview of the key issues that are shaping the contemporary production and reception of francophone literatures in Africa and the Caribbean, and will prepare candidates for research in the field. The material of the first semester will be predominantly drawn from the sub-Saharan African context, while that of the second semester will be predominantly from the francophone Maghreb, with some considertation of the francophone Caribbean context.
Medieval Occitan Literature
This module offers an introduction to the sophisticated and influential culture of the troubadours, who are well-known as the earliest love poets in any European vernacular. It may also serve as a preparation for research in the field.
Painters and Writers: the image of the artist in 19th-century French literature
The image of the painter features prominently in many nineteenth-century French novels. The module explores the implications of this figure through comparisons of four major realist and naturalist texts in which artists play important roles; students will be introduced to the great 19th century debate about realist and naturalist aesthetics.
The French Novel 1750-1800
Students make their own choices as to which texts they will study in depth. It is useful, but not essential to have some knowledge of the development of the genre in the first half of the century, and in other European countries (especially England).
Duration
One year FT, two years PT, September to September.
