Module FREN3131: PROUST AND GIDE

Department: MODERN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES (FRENCH)

FREN3131: PROUST AND GIDE

Prerequisites

• French Language 2 (FREN2051) or French Language 2 and Year Abroad (FREN2071) OR an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern European Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: French Language 4 (FREN3041). Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To introduce students to a representative selection of works by two of the most important and influential writers in 20th century French literature.
• Proust and Gide will be studied both individually and in relation to each other with particular emphasis being placed on questions of formal and narratological innovation.

Content

• Texts: Proust, 'Du cote de chez Swann', 'Le Temps retrouve' (extracts).
• Gide, 'Les Faux-Monnayeurs', 'La Symphonie pastorale', 'L'Immoraliste', 'La Porte etroite'.
• Topics covered will include questions of narrative technique, and especially the ways in which both writers use the novel as a medium for literary experimentation and innovation, moving far beyond the 'realism' of the 19th-century novel.
• In addition, the module will examine the relationship in Proust and Gide between the literary form and the individual's search for meaning and identity.
• The module will be taught and examined in English.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the course students will have:
• an overview of the central themes and preoccupations in the work of Proust and Gide;
• an understanding of the different ways in which both writers use the novel as a medium for literary experimentation and innovation, moving far beyond the 'realism' of the nineteenth-century novel;
• a grasp of the relationship in their work between literary form and the individual's search for meaning and identity;
• they should be capable of detailed stylistic analysis of selected characteristic passages from their work.

• In addition, students will have had practice at organising ideas and arguments in written work, at making intelligent use of secondary material and at working in a structured and independent way.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Students are required to attend one lecture per week. They are also required to attend, prepare for and participate actively in one seminar per fortnight, at a time to be arranged. Sessions for the return of formative assignments will also be arranged. Classes will be given in English.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

3 essays/commentaries.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University