Unit name | Les Miserables: Readings and Receptions |
---|---|
Unit code | FREN30030 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Stephens |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of French |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit explores the relationship between Victor Hugo’s epic novel Les Misérables (1862) and its numerous adaptations, including film, animation, literature, and the celebrated stage musical. By looking first at the novel itself and then at a range of adaptations, this unit engages both with the creativity of French Romantic aesthetics and with the processes of adaptation. Hugo’s novel gives his reader a sense of their own freedom towards the moral questions which the text poses about social justice. Hugo’s readers are prompted to become active designers of meaning, helping Les Misérables to be re-imagined over successive generations and to enter into an international popular consciousness. This unit in turn examines how adaptations of the novel may be seen as creative works rather than derivative copies. They reshape Les Misérables according to their own artistic and cultural needs, offering new ways of thinking about concepts of originality and intertextuality.
The unit will be taught through a combination of tutor- and student-led seminars, Les Misérables will be studied alongside a minimum of four adaptations in any one academic session, taken from a broad range of works in different media, for example: film (1995, dir. Claude Lelouch); television( 1972, dir. Marcel Bluwal); radio (1937, dir. Orson Welles); print (2009, Soleil Manga); stage (Boublil and Schönberg’s famous 1985 musical); and user-generated digital content (Takase’s 1998 video game). Key seminar reading material, including URL links to reading and viewing where possible, will be made available via Blackboard; some A/V material will be uploaded directly for students to consult, both for the primary and broader reading lists.
By the end of the unit, students will be able to demonstrate that they have:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities, including seminars, lectures, and collaborative as well as self-directed learning opportunities supported by tutor consultation.
1 x group presentation (25%) testing ILOs 1-6
1 x 4000 word essay (75%) testing ILOs 1-5
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. FREN30030).
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 Faculty 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. If you have self-certificated your absence from an
assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.