Module FREN3251: WRITING AND CRIMINALITY

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures (French)

FREN3251: WRITING AND CRIMINALITY

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To explore the problematic nature of the relationship between narrator and reader of a literary text by studying the 'cas limite' of texts written by convicted criminals (Francois Villon and Jean Genet).
• To introduce students to the main features of reception theory and to prompt critical reconsideration of 'literary history'.

Content

• This module examines the work of two French writers who have been assimilated into the 'canon' of French literature despite being convicted criminals.
• Brushes with the law [sometimes resulting in imprisonment] marked the biographies of both Francois Villon and Jean Genet.
• their works feature, as protagonists, young men who revolt against or subvert the established order of the day while breaking society's taboos.
• Villon's satirical verse 'Testament' and Genet's 'Journal du voleur', although separated by almost five hundred years, raise similar problems: how can readers, faced with disturbing, shocking or offensive material, safeguard their own values, and what role should an author's biography be allowed to play in the interpretation of her/her works? Attention is also paid to the reception of both authors insofar as it may represent a desire to play down the subversive nature of their texts and reclaim them for general readership of the 'classics'.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students should have:
• a critical understanding of the relationship between narrator and reader in literary texts, together with a familiarity with the main theories of reader-response,
• an awareness of manipulative techniques used by authors/narrators and a healthy scepticism about taking authorial statements at face value.

• Skills in the active and critical reading of texts.
• The ability to document and defend a point of view.
• The ability to evaluate, compare, synthesise and present conflicting critical responses to literary texts.
• Essay and commentary writing skills.

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

• Weekly lectures with historical, biographical and theoretical starting points for the analysis of extracts from both authors in seminars.
• Fortnightly seminars will enable students, through guided close reading of extracts, to become familiar with manipulative strategies on the part of narrators, and to reflect critically on their own role in the relationship between the literary text and its readers.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

None