Module FREN3341: CULTURE AND CONFLICT IN THE WARS OF RELIGION

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (French)

FREN3341: CULTURE AND CONFLICT IN THE WARS OF RELIGION

Prerequisites

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

Corequisites

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: French Language 4 (FREN3041) or French Language 4 following Year Abroad (FREN3351). Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• to offer an advanced course in French literature and/or visual culture of the sixteenth (and early seventeenth) century
• to enable students to reflect critically on relationships between literature, visual culture and history, and on the specifications of 'literary' or visual texts in understanding the past
• to enable students to analyse relationships between literature and visual culture, on the one hand, and war and conflict, on the other
• to develop students' critical and analytical skills in relation to various genres (which could include the essay, fiction, poetry, prints, painting)
• to offer a course related to Dr Banks's current and future research

Content

• Analysis of a small selection of sixteenth and early seventeenth century works (which will vary from year to year)
• Introduction to sixteenth century conflict involving France - the Wars of Religion, national rivalries, conflict in the New World
• Sustained focus on relationships between literature and/or visual culture and history - on what particular 'literary' or visual objects can tell us about historical periods (e.g. ideals and anxieties, fantasies and fears) which other historical objects cannot, and on how they do this

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of important French texts
• knowledge of a crucial period in French history and literary history
• knowledge of innovative approaches to analysing relationships between literature, visual culture and conflict, and between literature, visual culture and history

• development of critical skills - close reading of primary texts
• ability to relate works judisciously to overarching themes of conflict and war
• ability to analyse imaginatively and rigorously relationships between literature, visual culture and history
• ability to critique secondary material

• critical and analytical
• essay-writing and commentary
• structuring of arguments
• independent learning

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

• fortnightly seminar in small groups, which will focus on student-led critical analysis of works
• weekly lecture which will be used both to provide historical information and also to analyse primary (and occasionally secondary) material

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

None

■ 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