Imagining France: An Introduction to French Studies

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
• Convenor: Professor Akane Kawakami
• Tutors: Damian Catani, Professor Akane Kawakami, Ann Lewis, Martin Shipway
• Assessment: a commentary of 500-1000 words in English (10%), two essays of 2000 words in English (35% each) and one unseen 90-minute in-class test in English or French (20%)

This module aims to introduce you to key artefacts - novels, socio-political writings, maps, paintings, short stories and philosophical fiction - from French and francophone culture up to the present day. We will explore why these artefacts may be considered important for understanding what is meant or imagined by ‘Frenchness’, past and present. Moving across centuries and disciplines - from eighteenth century, to the present day - all the material we cover is linked by its preoccupation with France’s various self-definitions in opposition to notions of ‘foreignness’.

The module will also incorporate a number of study skills sessions, including ones on essay writing, commentary, bibliography and referencing. It is taught and assessed entirely in English.

Indicative module content

• 'Otherness': Imagining the Outsider's View in Eighteenth-Century France
• Places: Paris or the Provinces?
• Conflict and the Fracturing of National Identity
• Mapping France