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The French Short Story: from Voltaire to Maupassant (Level 5)

Classes

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Overview

Year Of Entry
2025-26
Fees
£1575

In our French Short Story: from Voltaire to Maupassant short course, we place the French short story in its intellectual and social context, thereby offering you a snapshot of the central aesthetic and ideological concerns of a range of important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors. Not only do the authors studied therefore allow us to map the evolution of the short story as a genre in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but this genre in turn sheds valuable light on a particularly rich and rapidly changing period of French cultural and social history.

We will study the following primary texts:

  • Voltaire, ‘Zadig’, ‘Micromégas’, ‘Candide’ (any complete edition of each short story)
  • Diderot, ‘Ceci n’est pas un conte’ [This is Not a Tale] and ‘Madame de la Carlière’
  • Richard Hobbs (ed.) From Balzac to Zola: Selected Short Stories (Bristol Classical Press, 1992)
  • Maupassant, ‘Le Horla’ (any edition)

Assessment is via a 2500-word essay (50%) and 1.5-hour take-home test (50%).

As a student on this course, you will study alongside Birkbeck students enrolled on one of our undergraduate or postgraduate courses, giving you the opportunity to network with a range of Birkbeck current students whilst you learn.

30 credits at level 5

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  • Entry requirements

    Entry requirements

    Most of our short courses have no formal entry requirements and are open to all students.

    This short course has no prerequisites.

    As part of the enrolment process, you may be required to submit a copy of a suitable form of ID.

    International students who wish to come to the UK to study a short course can apply for a Visitor visa. Please note that it is not possible to obtain a Student visa to study a short course.

  • How to apply

    How to apply

    You register directly onto the classes you would like to take. Classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis - so apply early. If you wish to take more than one short course, you can select each one separately and then register onto them together via our online application portal. There is usually no formal selection process, although some modules may have prerequisites and/or other requirements, which will be specified where relevant.

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