| Unit name | Before the Novel: experiments in prose narrative |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN20019 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Marianne Ailes |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
N/A |
| Co-requisites |
N/A |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit would introduce the student to a range of pre-modern texts in prose. Students would gain an understanding of the importance of prose writing before the novel, its early association with truth and the truth topos of early prose writings. They would see the versatility of prose narration and the range of forms it could take. The ‘set texts’ would be supplemented by a dossier of earlier prose works. Approximately half the unit would be concerned with medieval writings and half with early modern and the teaching split between the specialists in these areas.
Students would develop an understanding of different conventions of prose writing and chronological change. They would become aware of the complex relationship between truth, protestations of truth, and fiction, and ways in which different authors asserted the ‘reality’ of what they were writing. They would be aware of the range of formal possibilities within prose narrative.
The unit will be taught through one lecture per week and one seminar (in two groups if necessary). The recently developed on-line tutorials in Old French will be made available through Blackboard for any students who wish to try to read the oldest texts in the original. All the students will be expected to make use of the on-line tutorials in Middle French.
2,000 word essay (33%) 2 hour exam (67%)
Both forms of assessment will test subject knowledge of the field. Students will be required to develop detailed and extended analytical arguments based on independent research using a range of source materials. They will show an awareness of methodologies appropriate to the subject matter.
De la Sale, Jehan de Saintre Rabelais, Pantagruel Marguerite de Navarre, Heptaméron Brantôme, Les Dames Galantes
