| Unit name | Revolutions in Fiction: Romanticism and Realism under the July Monarchy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30118 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Stephens |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
How do the stories we tell impact the ways we think about the past and the present? What relationship do they form between our imagination, our emotions, and our ability to reason? And who gets to tell these stories? These questions remain integral to the value of reading and studying literature, and they can be answered by turning to a definitive and exciting moment in history when the novel rose to the prominence that it still holds today. The July Monarchy (1830-1848) produced some of France’s best-known and most influential fiction at a time of dizzying social change. Writers such as Victor Hugo, George Sand, Stendhal, Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas helped to legitimise the novel as the most popular literary form in the global marketplace, during a revolutionary period when Romantic idealism was being overtaken by the vogue for Realism.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit complements and extends your understanding of the culture of the French-speaking world and its international influence by studying some of French literature’s most famous stories and characters, including the three musketeers and the hunchback of Notre-Dame. It builds on the approaches and concepts you will have developed in your earlier years of study for cultural and linguistic analysis. It also sharpens your awareness of the importance of intersectional frameworks for examining how language and identity relate to the social dynamics of power (and oppression). In so doing, the unit will enhance your ability and confidence to work both independently and collaboratively while developing your sense of empathy and judgement as readers.
An overview of content
Reading some of the French language’s most popular writers, this unit explores how literary fiction has interrogated and shaped the making of French history. The July Revolution of 1830 promised an era of stability for France and ended the reactionary Bourbon Restoration. The new constitutional monarchy, under the ‘citizen king’ Louis-Philippe, sought a juste milieu or ‘middle way’ that could reconcile the divisive legacy of the French Revolution of 1789 amidst the competing ideologies of monarchism, Bonapartism, and republicanism. But the July Monarchy would itself fall to yet another revolution in 1848, by which time the French novel had evolved from its earlier sentimental and supernatural forms into an important vehicle for social, philosophical, and historical commentary. This period therefore witnessed the novel’s flexible forms take on unprecedented appeal for mapping and questioning an ever-changing world, and for doing so through fiction’s capacity to entertain and enthral.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
The novel continues to thrive today as both a commercial product and a respected artform. Taking this unit, you will understand how literary fiction acquired this kind of scope during the nineteenth century, and how the novel’s rise to prominence challenges linear models of historical knowledge. Whereas Romanticism has conventionally been seen to give way to Realism at the century’s mid-point, a more nuanced approach is needed for examining what is ultimately a reciprocal relationship that empowered writers and readers to engage with the past and the present. In making these intellectual connections and strengthening your abilities in strategic reading, you will also reflect further on literature’s importance for highlighting markers of identity like class and gender.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through weekly seminars. Seminar discussion will identify key questions about the unit content and enable you to build, illustrate, share, and reflect on your own arguments. Input from the Unit Director will help you acquire the relevant subject knowledge and develop your skills in critical analysis and evidence-gathering by modelling how to interpret the unit’s primary materials and how to contextualise that understanding.
Online activities and digital resources will prepare you for each week’s seminar. All primary sources and some of the secondary ones will be assigned, but you will be expected to navigate the unit’s Resource List and the library database yourself to supplement these. Guidance from the Unit Director will support you to manage your time effectively and to engage with reading as an active process to expand your knowledge and understanding.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. FREN30118).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
