Unit information: Representations of War in 2013/14

Unit name	Representations of War
Unit code	FREN30091
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Hurcombe
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of French
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit traces the problematic depiction of both world wars in a number of French novelistic and cinematic accounts. It combines the study of contemporaneous and subsequent post-war representations of both conflicts, examining each account in relation to the myths and ideologies it seeks to overturn and/or to establish. Beginning with a contemporaneous eye-witness account of the Great War (Barbusse), it will then examine the relationship in this text and in the film La Grande illusion between cultural representations of conflict and pacifism. Subsequently, it will study the attempts made by Sartre and Melville to understand the Second World War in terms of their respective ideologies (existentialism and Gaullism) and the relationship of both novel and film to the emergence of the myth of a France résistante. Finally, the unit will examine recent reassessments of those myths surrounding the memory of war and the search for individual identity amidst the maelstrom of history in the works of Modiano and Japrisot. Whilst making particular reference to the depiction of war, this unit will also address the broader issues of perspective, the interaction of the collective and the individual, of history and fiction, and explore the problematic relationship of cultural representations of war to the expression of a particular ideological understanding of that conflict. In addition to studying the problem of understanding war in the present, it will also examine the equally difficult attempts of post-war generations to evoke and to exorcise the memory of war.

Aims:

• To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; linguistics; cultural studies; film, television or other media.

• To facilitate students’ engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.

• To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level I.

• To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will:

• be knowledgable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;

• will have advanced skills in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;

• be able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at an advanced level;

• be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an advanced level of complexity;

• be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including postgraduate study.

Teaching Information

Two seminar hours per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours).

Assessment Information

One 3000-word essay plus 3-hour exam (50%/50%)

Reading and References

Barbusse, Henri Le Feu (Paris, Livre de Poche)

Sartre, J-P, La Mort dans l-âme (paris: Gallimard, 2000)

Modiano, Patrick, La ronde de nuit (Paris: Gallimard, 2000)

Japrisot, Sebastien, Un long Dimanche de fiançailles (Paris: Folio, 1991)