Sensibility and Sociability in the Eighteenth-Century French Novel (Level 5)

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Ann Lewis
• Assessment: an in-class test essay or commentary (40%) and 1500-word essay (60%)

This module will introduce you to four key novels from eighteenth-century France. 'Sensibility' and sympathy are central notions in Enlightenment thought and inseparable from contemporary theories on social relations and sociability.

How important are emotions such as pity in moral conduct? Is 'une âme sensible' a universal disposition, or the exclusive quality of a happy (or unhappy) few? What is the place of family feeling and/or sexual passion in moral behaviour and in the pursuit of happiness? These are some of the moral and philosophical questions that are explored in the set texts which we will examine over the course of this module.

You should be able to read the set texts in French.

Indicative module syllabus

• Prévost, Manon Lescaut (1731)
• Marivaux, La Vie de Marianne (1731-42)
• Diderot, La Religieuse (1797)
• Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul et Virginie (1788)

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate relevant factual knowledge about the prescribed texts, their contexts and the issues under discussion
• evaluate the prescribed texts at a thematic as well as linguistic and stylistic level
• work within historical and theoretical frameworks in the interpretation of the prescribed texts.